Deceuninck-QuickStep (open in new tab) boss Patrick Lefebvre has hit back at the UCI. The sport's governing body, the CADF (Cycling Anti-Doping Federation), has removed an item from the pocket of the jersey of Lemco Evenpole (open in new tab) after the team's directeur sportif, Davide Bramati, crashed at Il Lombardia. This was hours after I had instructed him to investigate a video (opens in new tab) of the team's directeur sportif, Davide Bramati, removing an item from the pocket of his jersey.

The video went viral on Twitter this week, and UCI President Davide Lapartiento asked the CADF to investigate. It will also investigate whether teams were sending "forbidden data" during the race, as Bramati said he knew about the crash before arriving on the scene because of Evenpoel's "data stoppage."

Lefebvre blasted both the UCI and the "so-called independent agency" CADF on Twitter Friday night, and has since written weekly contributions to the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab).

"Apparently, these images are good enough for an investigation by public authorities," Lefebvre said, before blaming former Festina director Antoine Vailler for bringing the images to light on Twitter.

"He posts the most ridiculous videos.

"What happened," Bramati said, after Lemko fell, he descended into the ravine and removed all hard objects to protect him from further injury, including his helmet, radio, and bidet (water bottle) - in this case a few inches in size.

"The only thing you can see in the video is the bidet.

In the live video of the race, Evenpoel can be seen receiving what looks like a white bidet from team member Soignier before putting it in his bottle cage at the top of Solmano with 50.2 km to go.

Two kilometers later, he took a drink on the descent and reached to put it in his jersey pocket just before crashing out of the race.

According to Lefebvre, the bidon was commonly used in race finals and contained only energy drinks or caffeine.

"Riders often use bidon in the finals. That so-called "finals bottle" has a very bad reputation as a kind of witchcraft, but in reality, bidons in finals are just more convenient and less sticky than gels.

"What's in such a bidon?" cola, red bull, a little caffeine. Nothing prohibited. There are no painkillers in it. I've never even used tramadol. The mysticism surrounding bidon is mostly a placebo effect."

Lefebvre called the idea that Bramati descended into the canyon to retrieve Bidon "completely ridiculous" and said that the team leader of the Detunink-Quickstep was only taking care of the injured rider.

Lefebvre continued to criticize the UCI's actions following an earlier tweet, suggesting that the investigation was in retaliation for an ongoing dispute over rider safety.

Last week, following an altercation between the riders, their own union, the CPA, and the UCI, Lefebvre (open in new tab) and Jumbo Visma boss Richard Plug (open in new tab), both of whom have been in the news, suggested that the teams unite to set up a fund and an outside company to inspect race route safety They mooted the idea of inspecting the race route.

"The most ironic reading of the facts is that I set foot on the barricades again this week," Lefebvre said. 'I'm working with Richard Plug and the other team bosses to make cycling safer.'

"Against the wishes of the UCI, we want to outsource this to an outside organization. Cycling must become safer.

"The confluence of circumstances is clear. By releasing news of the investigation now, I am paying the price for my big mouth in the safety debate, as it proves that the CADF is not independent but an instrument serving the UCI's agenda, while the cycling teams are co-financing the CADF.

"The decision is painfully clear. It is depressing. There are no other words for this story."