Vindicated: Van Gansen's guilty verdict gives validation to abused Health Mate riders

Health Mate Ladies Team (UCI Women's Team)

Health Mate-Cyclelive (UCI Women's Team) (Image credit: Getty Images)

The UCI’s announcement that its Ethics Commission had found Health Mate-Cyclelive team manager Patrick Van Gansen guilty of violations of its Code of Ethics brought vindication to the women who filed formal abuse complaints against him.

Cyclingnews reached out to Esther Meisels, Sara Mustonen and Chloë Turblin to reflect on the final verdict. Each expressed feelings of validation, and for some, a sense of relief along with hope for the future development and safety in women's professional cycling. There were also mixed emotions, feelings of being brushed aside during their initial complaint processes, and for some, there remains an unseen scarring that can often come with emotional trauma.

It was first reported last June that Meisels, Mustonen and the father of Turblin - separately filed complaints with the UCI Ethics Commission, reporting abuses by Van Gansen. A fourth formal complaint was filed nearly a year later by a rider on the team who wished to remain anonymous. All of their complaints centered around the UCI Code of Ethics: Appendix 1, which covers protection of physical and mental integrity, sexual harassment and abuse. In the wake of these formal complaints, six more riders came forward in the press to corroborate the abuse claims with their own personal experiences and testimony while racing for Van Gansen's past teams.

Although the UCI began a formal investigation last summer, it later hired an external agency, UK-based Sport Resolutions, to conduct an independent investigation. The sport governing body said the case had high demands that included the seriousness of the accusations, the complaints that spanned several years, and because there were a large number of people involved. The Ethics Commission based its guilty verdict on the Sport Resolutions’ final report.

Van Gansen has denied all of the allegations and threatened to take legal action against the women who alleged abuse while they raced for his team or worked for his other businesses. He is no longer registered as a staff member of a UCI team for 2020. The UCI told Cyclingnews that Van Gansen was notified of its decision and that any sanctions would be handled by the Disciplinary Commission within the coming weeks. Cyclingnews requested a comment from Van Gansen regarding the UCI Ethics Commission's decision, however, he declined to comment citing that the case was still ongoing and a confidential matter.

The Cyclists’ Alliance (TCA), an association for women’s professional cycling, provided guidance to the four riders on how to file their complaints properly at the Ethics Commission, and on what information, evidence and testimony would be required to strengthen their claims. TCA founder Iris Slappendel told Cyclingnews that the outcome of this case provided validation for the riders who filed complaints. In addition, the handling of the case by the Ethics Commission served to show how serious it deemed complaints of this nature.

"This decision was important because if Van Gansen wasn’t found guilty then no rider would ever take the steps to file a complaint at the Ethics Commission again. It tells everyone that the Ethics Commission takes these kinds of complaints seriously and they listened to the statements. It should be encouragement to other riders to speak out if they find themselves in a similar situation. We still need to find out how the Disciplinary Commission will sanction Van Gansen but the [guilty] verdict alone does show that people who don’t have the right intention [in the sport] cannot just get away with it anymore," Slappendel told Cyclingnews.

Meisels, 24, is a professional cyclist from Israel and started competing internationally in 2017. After a successful 2018 season, where she was seventh at the UCI White Spot Delta Road Race, she joined the Belgian-based Health Mate-Cyclelive Team at the start of 2019. She left the team in May of 2019 and filed a formal complaint with the Ethics Commission against Van Gansen citing abusive and inappropriate behaviour.

Mustonen, 39, joined Health Mate-Cyclelive team in 2019, and her experience in the sport gave her a leadership role while she was also there to support the younger riders. She turned professional in 2008 and has raced for teams Liv-Plantur, Hitec Products, Team Virtu Cycling and Experza-Footlogix. Mustonen officially left the team in April of 2019 citing inappropriate behaviour and psychological abuse in her formal complaint against Van Gansen.

I was the first to denounce the facts [of abuse to the UCI Ethics Commission] with the help of my father. Why did my father take sides in this story? Beyond his personal confrontation with Patrick Van Gansen, I think he's seen me in states no father would want his daughter in. So, with my agreement, he took the first steps, as well as supporting me by making his own statements, because I felt personally unable to make them alone.

During the majority of this period, Patrick Van Gansen sent me threatening messages, trying to contact me very late at night, and even sometimes with a masked appeal. He systematically included mine and my father's email addresses as hidden copies when he sent his defence files to the UCI. It was a form of torture, for several weeks he demeaned me, and turned me against my own father, trying to destroy our family, and to divide us. Little by little, he destroyed my self-esteem.

Until then, all the mental energy that I had invested in my sport, my passion, I did it in a determined, convinced, and in a relentless way, and have been doing it like this since I was 12 years old. Of course, I never had world-class results, I am also not among the best French [riders], but should that make me a person whose testimonies are ignored? Is our [the victims'] consideration really proportional to our palmares? This is the feeling I have had, in the face of the looks and disparaging remarks of some people, during my dealings with the UCI.

I hope that the case of the Health Mate team will further enhance the balance and development of women's cycling. I don't want the women's cycling community to take offence, close their eyes, or be ashamed of this kind of case. As you know, even though I am aware that these kinds of problems are unfortunately sometimes present, I do not wish to make a generalization either. Some women's teams have an equal balance, the same opportunities, the same respect as our male counterparts. Women's cycling is evolving, there's no denying it.

Unfortunately or "fortunately" this kind of thing [abuse of riders] happens more easily in small teams, since instability and financial precariousness can create unhealthy situations. But should we have to go through these small steps, in order to increase our capacities, and our chances of getting into the best teams? This is what many directors abuse/take advantage of: the weakness of young riders faced with their dreams of becoming professionals.

I know that my statement may surprise some people, the season has not yet started and yet I am not motivated. For the moment, I have lost all illusions and desire to evolve in my sport. I thought it would come back, but no, it's not coming back. Cycling no longer makes me dream or shine, and it's a deep feeling of personal failure that I cannot have the motivation and drive that I had before all this.

Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.

Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.

She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.