© Twitter William Junior Lecerf
Bumblebees between Lotto Soudal and one of the riders of her training team, William Junior Lecerf. The 19-year-old climbing talent is moving to the youth team of Patrick Lefevere and he is not thanked for that. Lecerf’s departure is disrespectful to Lotto-Soudal, which will end the collaboration before the end of the season. Result: Lecerf only has to make do with a spare bike in the Tour of the Future, in which he participates with the national team.
Maarten VanhoofBron: cycling flash
Father Wiliam Lecerf nevertheless claims not to be aware of Lotto Soudal’s decision. “William Junior drove another race with Lotto Soudal on Sunday and nothing was reported after the race. Only that he was not allowed to take his bikes with him to the Future Round, as they no longer wanted to invest in him.”
Lecerf junior, who is in a good season with a seventh place in Liège-Bastogne-Liège for U23 and fourth in the Baby Giro, does not let the event get to his heart. He shows himself from his most positive side on social media. “Almost time for the Tour of the Future. Even if the conditions aren’t ideal with just one team training bike, we’ll make the most of it! Never give up!”
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Lack of respect
Kurt Van de Wouwer, sports director at Lotto Soudal, regrets the way Lecerf leaves the team. “William Junior Lecerf is no longer part of Lotto Soudal. We regret that, because together with him we have invested a lot of time and energy in a good cooperation since he joined our team this season. Our training team is the lifeblood of our team. We are very proud of talents such as Tim Wellens, Florian Vermeersch or Arnaud De Lie who, after a passage in our U23 team, grow into international top riders. Hard work, a professional attitude and respect are the basic values that every promising rider inherits from us.”
“Immediately after the Giro U23, we told William Junior, his parents and his manager that we would come up with a proposal to further develop his career within our team,” Van de Wouwer continues. “That’s how we do it with all the talented riders that we would like to keep with us for longer. The question to sit together about this remained unanswered for a long time. Afterwards it turned out that during that period he did start talking to other teams and without even waiting for our proposal to agree with another team.”
“In the 14 years that I have been running this U23 team, I have never experienced such a lack of respect. After everything we had done for him and everything we were still willing to do, it felt like an ice cold shower. We therefore had no choice but to terminate the collaboration with immediate effect.”
