Struggling in a race with twists and turns on Monday in Hyères (Var), Junior Guelpa and Christophe Martens were not allowed to drive this Tuesday in Cagnes-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône). And it will be the same this Thursday evening when the name of the two professionals was nevertheless registered in the column of the starters in meeting 5.
Clashes that are messy
Tuesday evening, the riders who followed the Cagnoises races on the online networks of the various betting operators realized this early in the evening. Junior Guelpa and Christophe Martens are gradually disappearing from the starting lists to make way for their replacements.
Many then make the link with the events of the day before and this movement towards the outside of Christophe Martens, driver of Marcello Wibb, which causes the fault of Chipie des Bordes in the penultimate corner of the fourth Var race. In the latter’s sulky, Junior Guelpa does himself justice by considerably slowing down his rival, finally second, at the finish line.
For that, the race marshals of Hyères inflict four days of suspension on Christophe Martens and eight on Junior Guelpa. Sanctions supposed to prevent them from running from July 31.
But this Tuesday evening already, the two men find themselves on the sidelines.
An official press release from the LeTrot company, released shortly before 9 p.m., explains that “the SECF commissioners were seized [] an extension request. [] In addition, given the seriousness of the facts and the resulting risk for the regularity and image of the races, open to pari-mutuel, the commissioners of the SECF have, as a precautionary measure and pending their decision to intervene on the merits, decided to suspend the authorizations to ride issued to the protagonists involved in this incident. “
Video of the incident:
“An investigation is in progress”
“As a precaution, we have decided to suspend the two drivers as a precaution,” comments Olivier de Seyssel, one of the four commissioners of the Société du Cheval Français (SECF) on Wednesday. It is a recent power that we have and we are using it because an investigation is underway concerning this matter. We have already received the report from the Hyères commissioners and we have the necessary films at our disposal to judge. It is now a question of hearing the two protagonists, who can give us their versions of the facts either in writing or orally. It could go quickly. The final decision should be made at the end of the week or early next week. “
