Wellens and coach separate

Bart Wellens (Fidea) has broken off his relationship with his coach Paul Ponnet after having worked with him for the past two years. An angry Ponnet told Sportwereld.be that he had heard the information second hand. "Apparently Bart didn't have the balls to tell me himself," he said. "I felt resentment for a couple of weeks. After the season I had planned to evaluate things with him. I wanted to keep working with Wellens provided that he considered changing a few things drastically. Now I even get a punch on the nose.

Ponnet added that Wellens was "surrounded by too many gurus who all want a slice of the cake" and that his life was now imitating his reality soap Wellens & Wee.

Wellens' response was that Ponnet "has not managed to lift my condition to a higher level in the past months and therefore I've made this choice." He is also considering stopping with Wellens & Wee, because "only ratings and sensation counts."