Patrick Lefevere, manager of Quick Step Alfavinir, has publicly questioned the legitimacy of Jumbo Visma's Wout Van Art's recent knee injury.

Lefevere suggested in a weekend column in the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab) that the injury was an excuse for missing the Belgian national championship and that it was a team effect.

Van Aert revealed Thursday that he suffered a knee injury at a training camp in Tignes in preparation for the Tour de France and withdrew from Sunday's defense of his national road race title.

Lefebvre noted that Jumbo Visma leader Primoš Roglic is skipping his own national championships in Slovenia, implying that the team does not want riders to compete ahead of the Tour de France.

"The main absentee on Sunday is of course Wout Van Aert, who hit his knee on the handlebars during his internship in Tignes. How unlucky is that? Lefebvre writes.

"I'm not going to say it didn't happen, but if Jumbo Visma wants to keep the leaders out of the championships for the Tour, he should make that clear. Or is it just a coincidence that Primoz Roglic won't be in Slovenia?

None of Jumbo Visma's eight Tour de France competitors will be competing in this weekend's national championships.

Lefevere's weekly column has become a regular forum for him to air his views, which are always candid and often controversial.

The column is deja vu, given that 12 months earlier he publicly questioned his own rider, Sam Bennett, about his knee injury, which ultimately caused him to miss the Tour and leave the team later that year. Lefebvre suggested that the injury was "more out of fear of failure than pain"

before labeling the Irishman "the pinnacle of mental weakness" and likening him to a victim of domestic abuse as Bennett approached a move to Beulah Hansgrohe.

In a statement on Thursday, Van Aert said that "it would not normally be possible to forgo the Belgian Championships," adding: "This is the wisest decision because I do not want to risk the Tour."