Giro d'Italia 2025, De Bondt case on Colle delle Finestre: what happened and the Uci's moves

Rome, 20 June 2025 - Silence is golden and for Dries de Bondt could have even been platinum: the Belgian risks paying a high price for what he declared about his behaviour on the Colle delle Finestre, la Coppi peak of the Giro d'Italia 2025 which effectively shaped the final overall standings.

The facts and the Uci's reaction

Intercepted by the microphones of CyclingFlits, the class of '91 had admitted to having worked for Isaac Del Toro and especially Richard Carapaz in the desperate (and, in hindsight, vain) pursuit of Simon yates. The reasons are quickly stated, always by the frank De Bondt: the desire to show off, perhaps with theEF Education EasyPost dell 'Ecuadorian and the sports director Ken Vanmarcke, with whom he had also admitted to having had contacts prior to the stage, to avoid the very probable failure to renew at the end of the season with the Decathlon AG2R The World Team. Statements and facts that had already caused discussion, clearly dividing the front between those who turned up their noses and those who instead remembered how in cycling, after all, alliances on the road even between riders of different teams have always existed. From the simple debate in sports bars and on the web, the level went up when theUCI she intervened forcefully, declaring that she wanted to bring the case De Bondt in front of Ethics Commission. In fact, after the incriminating statements of the Belgian, the International Federation had already carried out a preliminary investigation, reaching the conclusion that the runner on the Colle delle Finestre had behaved in a way that was capable of 'calling into question the integrity of the competition'. Starting from its own considerations, theUCI he put the matter back to his own Ethics Commission, called upon to rule on the possible violation of the articoli 8.1 e 2 dell 'Attachment 2 of their own code of ethics. They would risk, in that case, both De Bondt is Vanmarcke, whose behaviors could be included in what the code considers 'failure to respect the instructions of the organizer or the commissioners' and 'violence, intimidation, insults, threats, incorrect behavior (pulling the jersey, the saddle of another rider), helmet blow, knee, elbow, shoulder, foot or slap, urinating in public etc.) or indecent or which puts someone else in danger': the sanctions, cumulating the two articles, could lead to a fine of a maximum of 5.500 Swiss francs, Besides 100 points less in the rankings UCI and the awarding of a yellow card.

No Tour de France 2025 for Seixas

 Just the Decathlon AG2R The World Team look beyond and already think about the Tour de France 2025, that the little star Paul Seixas will not compete, as explained to the microphones of The Team from the performance manager Jean Baptiste Quiclet. "Just last year Paul he competed in junior competitions and did not go beyond 120 km per day: the Tour of France It's the toughest race in the world and an increase in work like this in the space of almost a month could push him to breaking point."