Thijs Zonneveld reveals that Cian Uijtdebroeks may have been a victim of bullying at BORA - hansgrohe: "During the Vuelta there was also an 'Anti-Cian' app group"

The Cian Uijtdebroeks story continues to develop, and as more and more efforts are in place to try and put all pieces of the puzzle together, it has come out that the Belgian was most likely an outcast at BORA - hansgrohe and it got to the point where there was a chat group created to talk behind his back.

“Various sources say that Uijtdebroeks was something of an outsider at BORA. He was treated like a kind of nerd by other riders, but also by team leaders," Thijs Zonneveld said in the Het Wiel podcast. Uijtdebroeks publically had little disputes with the team over equipment, but ultimately more and more it seems like he was not fond of the team where he was at, and the sudden transfer is a clear indicator that there was no desire to continue with the German team.

"That was because he was very fanatical about certain things. He was weighing his diet, he didn't think his time trial bike was aerodynamic enough, he didn't think his clothing was good enough, so he bought different socks himself. They thought he was too fanatical. He was like someone in high school who got an A because he studied well, only to be told 'oh, you got an A again?!'

Over the past days it has become clear that there wasn't a good relationships between him and his teammates, confirming signs of the past few months. Namely at the Vuelta a España, at the time he talked about how he was confused by Aleksandr Vlasov's attack on stage 18 and how he felt the Russian wanted to finish the race ahead of him. An internal battle was in place, but Zonneveld tells that there may have been more than just that, and that some of his teammates created a group chat to talk about his actions behind his back.

"He was bullied. For example, during the Vuelta there was also an 'Anti-Cian' app group, without himself in it, so they could gossip about him," the Dutch reporter shared. "It's really too childish. He didn't feel at home in that team at all.”