Two former skilled cyclists, Laurens ten Dam and Thomas Dekker, have stated that they have been arrested and jailed forward of Unbound Gravel this yr.
The pair claimed on their their LiveSlowRideFast podcast, as reported by Wielerflits, that they have been arrested for “indecent behaviour” within the city of Marietta, Kansas, after having a shower in a carpark on a coaching trip.
They ended up spending an evening in jail forward of the race, and paid bail prices of $185, though in accordance with them, they won’t face a court docket look within the US.
“A day after Thomas landed, we have been neatly handcuffed and pushed in a police automobile to the jail in Marietta,” Ten Dam stated. “What had occurred? We drove to our common grocery store and arrived on the parking zone… That grocery store was merely razed to the bottom. There had been a twister. Consequently, the grocery store and division retailer merely disappeared.”
“We have been going to have lunch on the Mexican,” the previous Rabobank and Large-Alpecin professional continued. “It was nonetheless fairly early. We had accomplished a three-hour coaching trip and have been now fairly hungry. It was half previous one within the afternoon. I needed to take somewhat chilly bathe and Thomas throws water over me. We stood between the automobile doorways, having a shower. Out of the blue I hear a person screaming very loudly. However we simply needed to clean up for the Mexican.
“I truly felt it coming. There have been lots of people in that restaurant. Out of the blue there have been 5 police vehicles. The person who had shouted at us was additionally there and stated: ‘It is best to go to jail for this’… They first targeted completely on Thomas. He was searched after which put in handcuffs. So I assumed: s***. Then I needed to flip round and I used to be additionally handcuffed.”
“I did not dare do something,” Dekker, who used to race for Rabobank and Garmin-Sharp, stated. “I had 5 weapons pointed at me.”
The newest race content material, interviews, options, evaluations and knowledgeable shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
Ten Dam was often known as a strong domestique over a 15 yr profession, which resulted in 2019, which included serving to Tom Dumoulin to victory within the 2017 Giro d’Italia. The Dutchman went on to forge a gravel profession, transferring to the USA.
Dekker has a extra glittering palmarès, profitable Tirreno-Adriatico in 2006, however later admitted to utilizing EPO, a topic he documented in his 2016 e-book The Descent.
Having been arrested, Dekker and Ten Dam say they have been taken to jail: “We got one thing to eat, underneath a blanket, as a result of we have been already chilly,” Dekker stated. “All of it took a really very long time and fingerprints have been taken. We additionally needed to placed on an orange swimsuit, we have been actually inmate Laurens and inmate Thomas. It is actually not allowed there. It did conflict with my values.”
“The indictment acknowledged that we sprayed one another with water bottles like two homosexual cyclists,” Ten Dam claimed.
At Unbound Gravel, Ten Dam completed fiftieth, with Dekker in forty second, behind the winner, Lachlan Morton.
