Christoph Roodhooft believes that Niels Albert should not split the prize money
Niels Albert won himself a sum of 22,000 Euros after his astonishing performance at the Cyclo-cross World Championships 2012. He finished the race ahead of the favourites and claimed the top podium position.
The money was rewarded by the Belgian cycling federation as a token of appreciation.
Albert’s Team Manager Christoph Roodhooft told Het Laatste Nieuws that the cyclist should not share the prize money with his teammates.
Roodhooft believes that Niels should have the money solely for his own self because he worked pretty hard to achieve the honour.
He cited, “Albert has done everything alone, he received no help, on the contrary. They rode in chase of Albert. Why should he have to hand over part of the profits?”
The event was scheduled on January 29th, in Koksijde, Belgium. Niels managed to finish the race in the quickest time of 1 hour, 6 minutes and 7 seconds.
The day was dominated by the Belgian riders as they claimed the top seven positions.
A massive crowd of 60,000, including the Belgian Prime Minister, Elio Di Rupo, witnessed the glorious performance.
Rob Peeters fell 24 seconds behind at the second position with Kevin Pauwels claiming the third podium spot.
Tom Meeusen, Bart Aernouts, Klaas Vantornout and Sven Nys occupied the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh positions in the respective order.
Albert trained hard and the world championships were his only hope to claim the top position.
The Belgian National coach, Rudy De Bie totally disagrees with Christophe and believes that the prize money shall be distributed amongst the whole team. He explained, “This cannot be - it was not the deal”.
"Years ago it was agreed that the federation's premium for the Worlds would be divided with teammates. That deal is ratified by the national sports committee,” Rudy continued.
He explained that the agreement was signed with the consent of Coach Rudy and also in the presence of all the Belgian cyclists.
Smets briefed that if someone had any issues with the agreement he had to raise the concerns right away.
Jos believes that the only way for Albert to get away with the full amount is only if all the other riders agree not to ask for their share.
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