Patrick Lefevere explains Mikel Landa-Mattia Cattaneo controversy at La Vuelta: "The result was a shit show"

Patrick Levefere, the boss of Soudal Quick-Step, has spoken about what happened in the Vuelta a España with his team on the climb to Puerto Herrera in which Mikel Landa was dropped and Mattia Cattaneo was pulled back from the breakaway in a very controversial decision.

In his column in Het Nieuwsblad, he was clear as ever: "I saw how things tactically went completely wrong for our team. We had three men in front, while Mikel Landa behind had a bad day. The logical course of action is to let the men in front drop back to save the classification of the leader behind, but that took too long." First Casper Pedersen dropped back but was several minutes in the red jersey group before dropping back to Landa. Then, after the Basque was losing minutes, Mattia Cattaneo was pulled back with only 13 kilometers to go at a time where his presence would make very little difference.

He gave the keys to what happened, describing it with sincere words: "Why? The stage went through the Izki Natural Park, where there is no network. Sport director Wilfried Peeters had no pictures in the car in front of the lead group and couldn't even call Iljo Keisse and Geert Van Bondt. Furthermore, the lead group and the peloton were too far apart, which resulted in the radios not working. The result was a shit show."

He acknowledged that stopping Cattaneo was a mistake: "Mattia Cattaneo had the chance to win the stage in the lead, but he was told to wait. He literally stood still for eight minutes and could have smoked two cigarettes, so to speak; finally arriving next to Landa at a time when nothing could be fixed anymore."

And he ended up giving the UCI a slap on the wrist, understanding the problems that the team management faced in that chaotic moment.

"Ijo Keisse doesn't call often, but now he did. 'It sounded ridiculous, Patrick. I didn't sleep at all.' I assured Iljo: the problem is not with the team leaders. The problem is in cycling, where the relevant authorities want our team leaders to navigate blindly. How Formula 1 embraces technology and how we reject it: it's painful to watch," he concluded.