The latter was suspended by the team after images of the accident were revealed. But this Tuesday at the end of the day he announced that he was resigning from his position. He bitterly regrets what happened and explained the events in a press release.
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Moments before the accident, with only two laps left in the race, Lotto Dstny driver Jelle Harteel suffered a mechanical incident. Carl Roes approached him, the young cyclist changed bikes and left… without a bottle. His sports director wanted to catch up quickly and took a shortcut that took him to the intersection where the signalman was.
“I made a serious error in judgment.”
“As we had to drive through narrow, cobblestone streets and we were almost on the last lap, I decided to cut a small part of the route. This way I didn’t bother the other team leaders. When leaving this narrow area, we wanted to return behind our runner,” explains Carl Roes. “I stopped when I got behind the flag bearer,” he continues, before stating that when he restarted, the flag bearer wanted to prevent him from passing. The images show that the victim blocked the path of the Lotto car until so that the vehicles of the other teams could pass. But when he saw his runner arrive in the middle of the cars, Carl Roes wanted to avoid the signalman and that’s why he knocked him down. “I hit him with the rearview mirror of the car and he fell,” confirms the fifty.
He continued on his way anyway. But he claims to have asked the race management directly for news about the coach. He also contacted the victim in the evening to apologize. “I made a serious error in judgment, I gave priority to sporting interests over regulations and safety (…) This is unacceptable,” laments Carl Roes, who says he is “very affected by this incident.” “That’s why I decided to completely retire from the sport for which I lived with passion for 40 years,” he concludes.
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