Cycling: an American champion suspended after a Trumpist provocation

Has professional cycling suddenly become feminist, ecological and anti-racist? In less than two months, the organizers of the Tour de France abolished the ceremony of hostesses on the podiums (showing a man and a woman to present the prize to the winner), announced a penalty system taking effect from 2021 for any runner throwing its wrapping papers or cans used in nature. And now, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, a young cycling prodigy is fired by his team for having made comments favorable to Donald Trump and potentially imbued with racism. It is the American Quinn Simmons, 19, who “Will no longer run with Trek-Segafredo until further notice”. His employer indicates: “Regrettably, team rider Quinn Simmons has taken up positions on the internet that we find divisive, unfair and harmful to the team, to professional cycling, to its fans and to the positive future that we hope to contribute. to be created for this sport. “

Simmons had everything to titillate the intelligentsia of California or the East Coast, where cyclists are not the sons of workers or employees as in Europe, but rather children of good families. A thin red beard, almost hipster, a past of adventurer who hikes, skis and climbs rock faces, uncorks cans of Red Bull at 4000 meters above sea level with his little brother. Incidentally, he had a precocious talent: crowned junior world champion in 2019 at the end of a season with 27,000 kilometers of cycling and already ranked sixth on the Bretagne Classic in Plouay (Morbihan) in August, an event on the WorldTour calendar, the first world division.

Restricted de facto freedom of expression

This remarkable start to his career exploded in flight on Wednesday as a few tweets confirmed that Trumpism is not an entirely ordinary ideology. Thus, in response to a message from José Been, a Dutch journalist who calls on his pro-Trump contacts to no longer follow her, Quinn Simmons replied. «Bye» with the emoji of a waving hand. However, the runner chose a black hand …

Bye ????????

— Quinn Simmons (@QuinnSimmons9) September 30, 2020

Several fans were outraged, as were some American cyclists, Robin Carpenter of the Rally team, or anti-doping activist (ex-doped himself) Joe Papp. In 2016, no member of the peloton had declared his support for Donald Trump. Hostility to the US president is even sharper in 2020, as he encourages white supremacists. Particularly in a context where professional cycling is increasingly suspected of racism, based on an obvious observation: it is practiced by riders almost exclusively white. At the start of the last stage of the Tour de France, several participants wrote «no to racism» on their surgical mask, without causing a substantive debate.

Simmons picked the wrong horse, the wrong sport, and the wrong time. What does his team blame him for? Not only to be pro-Trump but to say it. In a first tweet, the American team declared that they would “Help him understand the appropriate tone that an athlete in his position should adopt”. But the press releases published a few hours later seemed to get to the heart of the matter: promoting the ideas of the outgoing US president. While freedom of expression is absolute and constitutionally protected in the United States, it is de facto restricted in professional cycling, where a rider is linked to a team that is itself funded by private companies. The clauses always provide for the promotion of the image or values ​​of the sponsoring company. And, in the case of Quinn Simmons, financiers have been forced in recent months to distance themselves from Donald Trump during the Black Lives Matter movement.

Trek pushed to commit after George Floyd’s death

Trek mounts, which were fitted to certain police cycling teams, were indeed used to repel demonstrators protesting after the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer on May 25 in Minneapolis. On June 10, the cycle brand adhered to the observation that “Blacks, African Americans and other people of color across the country do not have the same rights as white people”. The company announced the creation of 1,000 jobs for racialized people and financial support for various inclusion or anti-racism projects.

Until then, the manufacturer, main sponsor of the team, had always refused to engage in politics, lining up behind his muse Lance Armstrong between 1999 and 2012. After having garnered millions of profits thanks to his star, the firm based in Wisconsin decided to abandon it in October 2012, saying “Disappointed by the revelations of the Usada report”, the American anti-doping agency, which had revealed the doping system built around the fallen champion.

The cycling training is also sponsored by Segafredo, a coffee seller, whose CEO Massimo Zanetti, 72, was elected senator in Italy from 1994 to 1996. It was under the banner of Forza Italia, the party of Silvio Berlusconi. His position, reaffirmed since the municipal elections of Treviso (which he lost in 2013) situates him between Christian Democracy (center right) and the Northern League (extreme right).

Pierre Carrey