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A 53-year-old amateur rider, suspected of using an electric bike, fled this Monday before the start of the Routes de l’Oise, a four-stage UFOLEP event. The race director ended up on the hood of the fleeing driver’s car for a few hundred meters, after attempting to check the bike.
On the morning of May 20 in Crèvecœur-le-Grand (60), just before the start of the fourth stage of the 2024 Routes de l’Oise, Frédéric Lenormand, the volunteer race director, wanted to take a look at the bike of Giovambattista Iera (AC Bellaingeoise), third in the general classification after the first two days of racing. Some riders reportedly suspected Iera of mechanical doping and alerted the organizer. “This person immediately left the starting line to go to his truck to leave the premises,” stated a press release from the organizing committee.
Speaking to Courrier Picard, Frédéric Lenormand recounted attempting to prevent the rider from leaving the race by standing in front of his vehicle. “Since I wouldn’t let him pass, I ended up on the hood of the car. He then accelerated for about 300 meters. I was scared for my life.” Slightly injured, the race director managed to get off the hood of the vehicle before Iera managed to escape.
Giovambattista Iera, 53, has been a film actor. He notably appeared in Philippe Harel’s Les Randonneurs à Saint-Tropez with Benoît Poolvorde in 2008, and especially in Le vélo de Ghislain Lambert, also by Philippe Harel and with Benoît Poolvorde in 2001, where he played the character of Fabrice Bouillon, the leader of Lambert’s team.
A complaint has been filed by the race organizer, and the gendarmerie was still searching for Giovambattista Iera on Monday evening, May 20.
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