{"id":185621,"date":"2025-10-02T18:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T18:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/185621\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T18:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T18:42:11","slug":"it-feels-like-youre-only-allowed-to-have-an-opinion-if-its-unanimously-positive-jan-bakelants-responds-to-backlash-over-womens-cycling-criticisms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/185621\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;It feels like you\u2019re only allowed to have an opinion if it\u2019s unanimously positive&#8221; \u2013 Jan Bakelants responds to backlash over women&#8217;s cycling criticisms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/jan-bakelants\" title=\"Jan Bakelants\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jan Bakelants<\/a>, the former professional and outspoken commentator on the sport, has addressed the growing debate over criticism of women\u2019s cycling, following <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/marijn-de-vries\" title=\"Marijn de Vries\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marijn de Vries<\/a>\u2019s outspoken reaction after the recent <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/world-championships\" title=\"World Championships\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the latest episode of Wielerclub Wattage, Bakelants expressed frustration at what he sees as a narrowing space for honest analysis. \u201cAfter a while it starts to feel like you\u2019re only allowed to have an opinion if it\u2019s unanimously positive about women\u2019s cycling,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re no longer allowed to state the facts. But surely we\u2019re entitled to question how things are unfolding?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The discussion referenced de Vries\u2019s post-Worlds critique, in which she suggested a double standard persists in cycling: achievements and dominance in the women\u2019s peloton are often shielded from scrutiny, while equivalent performances in men\u2019s racing face far more critical analysis.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>During the podcast, host Ruben Van Gucht drew a parallel between Tadej Pogacar\u2019s current dominance in the men\u2019s peloton and Annemiek van Vleuten\u2019s supremacy a few years ago. At that time, critics labelled the rest of the women\u2019s peloton as \u201clacking quality,\u201d implying Van Vleuten faced little genuine competition. Bakelants admitted he sees a similar pattern emerging today. \u201cI don\u2019t want to spark a polemic, but I do actually agree with that. That\u2019s simply where the sport stands right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/tom-boonen\" title=\"Tom Boonen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tom Boonen<\/a>, participating in the debate, acknowledged the difficulty of such discussions. \u201cI live in a house full of women,\u201d he said. \u201cSome discussions you simply cannot win. You just have to let them go.\u201d Dirk De Wolf concluded the segment by noting that the panel would continue observing the situation but would refrain from further public commentary.<\/p>\n<p>Bakelants\u2019s remarks underline the tension between enthusiasm for promoting women\u2019s cycling and the need for critical, informed analysis. For fans and analysts alike, it raises a key question: can the sport embrace robust discussion without fear of reprisal, or are honest critiques destined to be silenced in the name of positivity?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan Bakelants, the former professional and outspoken commentator on the sport, has addressed the growing debate over criticism&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-185621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}