Twenty-four hours after the incidents which occurred on Monday, at the start of the fourth and final stage of the Routes de l’Oise amateur cycling race, Frédéric Trinh, public prosecutor of Beauvais, confirmed the opening of a judicial investigation for acts of “attempted fraud and aggravated willful violence. »
Giovambattista Iera, a rider from the AC Bellaingeoise team, presented himself to the gendarmerie this Tuesday, and was taken into custody, as was the person who was driving the vehicle in which he had fled, hitting the passing a race director.
On Monday, the rider advanced to the starting line of the Crèvecoeur-le-Grand – Grandvilliers stage. Suspected of mechanical doping, he fled when Frédéric Lenormand, president of Routes de l’Oise and race director, wanted to check his bike.
“A very rapid rise”
To justify the latter, Frédéric Lenormand explained that he found “suspicious a very rapid recovery of the rider on a breakaway” and that he had several testimonies reporting “an abnormal noise on the bike” from Giovambattista Iera. His team has since been excluded from the race.
“The first investigations show that a cyclist and his driver were suspected by the organizers of the event of technological fraud, leading to their exclusion from the race,” also recalls the public prosecutor.
The driver of the fugitive taken into custody
“The president of Routes de l’Oise, trying to stop the individuals as they fled by placing himself in front of their vehicle, was struck and carried on the hood for several meters, before the vehicle stopped,” he continues. Subsequently, the two individuals finally managed to leave the scene of the event. »
Originally from the North, Giovambattista Iera owns the IT restaurant chain (Italian Trattoria), with several establishments abroad, including the latest in Miami (United States). His cycling background allowed him to make his debut as a film extra in “The Bike of Ghislain Lambert”, with Benoît Poelvoorde. On his Facebook, he appears with many former cycling glories and with personalities from cinema and television.
