"This has happened 300,000 times" - Sep Vanmarrcke defends brother and Dries de Bondt over Finestre controversy
Cycling
The Giro d'Italia's final competitive stage was a memorable day for several reasons and amongst them was the unusual work that Dries de Bondt did for Richard Carapaz halfway through the Colle delle Finestre. The situation continues to evolve and Sep Vanmarcke, brother of a big figure involved, has shared his opinion.
On the brutal penultimate climb of the Giro, the GC race was on fire and Simon Yates was already up the road by this point. Dries de Bondt, in an interview after the Giro, revealed that he paced Carapaz up the climb after a conversation with EF Education-EasyPost DS Ken Vanmarcke in the morning of that day.
It had been clear that the conversations were regarding a possible contract for the 2026 season and that if De Bondt could play a decisive role in Carapaz' potential Giro victory, this could've turned into a reality. On the day, this was not the case.
Collaborations between riders of opposing teams and the battles for contracts often do lead to unusual situations in the peloton, but it was the openness and direct admission of racing in the interests of a rival team that kicked off a lot of debating in the cycling world. That has, this week, turned into an investigation from the UCI which could have consequences to both sides.
Sep Vanmarcke, former pro and classics specialists, fears that it may have very bad consequences for his brother Ken, the team's DS at the Giro: "It is not a pleasant situation for my brother. You don't want to be in the media like that. Hopefully they are sensible enough and his job is not in danger. It is a shame," he told Sporza.
He believes the topic has been overextended and dramatized, putting the focus on one example of a situation that happens often in the cycling world. "It's going in a direction that is absolutely unnecessary. This has happened 300,000 times. Collaborations happen in all situations, also outside the race. It is impossible that they (the UCI, ed.) start this. Then they will have a lot of work."
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A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
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