'I have balls, he doesn’t': Sam Bennett's team manager in extraordinary rant

Bennett's team manager has claimed the Irish cyclist lacks courage and threatened him with a 50% pay cut for the remainder of his contract

Mon, 28 Jun, 2021 - 17:22

Stephen Barry

Sam Bennett's team manager has claimed the Irish cyclist lacks courage and threatened him with a 50% pay cut for the remainder of his contract.

The extraordinary outburst by Patrick Lefevre to media at the Tour de France is an escalation of the public fallout from Bennett's knee injury, which ruled the defending green jersey winner out of the race.

Bennett had initially been deemed fit enough by his Deceuninck-QuickStep team to start the Tour de France but was not included in their final squad for the race, with Mark Cavendish taking his place.

Bennett, in a social media statement, said a “minor incident during training” caused a “short-term” knee injury that ultimately “left me without enough time to be race fit”.

Lefevre told the press last Monday: “I can’t prove Sam doesn’t have knee pain but I’m starting to think more and more that it’s more fear of failure than just pain.”

Lefevre's anger has only increased in the following week, saying Bennett had failed to return his call.

“I’m the boss. No? Clear? I sent him a message. He said he was on the bike, so I supposed he would call me after but he didn’t call me. So it says a lot more about him than me,” said Lefevere.

“I don’t know if you have a boss but I learned since I was a kid that the guy who pays you is the boss and he deserves respect. He didn’t show me respect. It’s more a pity for him than it is for me.

“If you fight like a devil and cry like a child because Bora-Hansgrohe treat you wrong and then after nearly 14 months you sign with the team again it says more about him than it does about me. I have balls, he doesn’t.”

Bennett, whose contract expires this year, is expected to rejoin Bora-Hansgrohe for the 2022 season, the team of Peter Sagan who the Carrick-on-Suir rider dethroned in winning the green jersey last year.

In the interim, Lefevre has raised the possibility of Bennett being frozen out at Deceuninck-QuickStep.

“If he behaves himself he will race. If not, then three months less riding and 50% less salary.”

Lefevre also lashed out at Bennett as mentally weaker than his replacement Cavendish, the 30-time stage winner on the Tour whose resurgence has earned his race return for the first time since 2018.

“The sprint train was for Sam and you can’t change the programme for riders in the last week. That doesn’t work. Everyone has been mentally prepared for months. You can’t say that Mark is less than Sam. He deserves the best lead-out.

"He’s different to Sam. First of all, Mark’s a lot stronger in the head than Sam. Even when Sam was the fastest he was always doubting about himself. We’ve told Mark that he has nothing to lose. That’s a luxury.”

Speaking last week, Carrick's other Tour legend Seán Kelly defended his compatriot, saying: “There are rumours going around that maybe Sam didn’t want to go to the Tour with the pressure and all that but I don’t agree with any suggestion that goes that way.

“I think the situation with team manager Patrick Lefevre… Well, we’ve heard about the negotiations around Sam’s contract for the future and Lefevere has said himself that Sam won’t be a QuickStep rider next year.

“Patrick is disappointed with that and I think Lefevere is just getting Sam back a bit with that. It’s nothing new from managers when a big rider leaves and they can’t hold onto them. These comments are made to just get a bit of revenge against the rider. It’s nothing new.

“I’ve seen it many times when riders aren’t going to stay with a team and the rider is dropped from the team without explanation.”