Tom Meeusen has expressed his disappointment about his non-selection for the Worlds on Twitter. "Painful that I cannot defend my rights / opportunities on both a sporting and human level," Meeusen wrote. "We cannot do anything," his manager Hans Van Kasteren tells Sporza.

Tom Meeusen was attending a training camp in Spain when he heard the news. Like teammate Bart Wellens, he will return to Belgium immediately. “Why should they stay there when they can’t participate in the highlight of the season?” manager Hans van Kasteren tells Sporza.

"We are amazed that this issue suddenly comes up again. Why are they suddenly banned from racing when there was no problem a month ago, 6 months ago or two ago? After all, it is the same file without any new elements.

"As a team, we consider taking action but time does not play in our favor. We can start proceedings, but if you're not on the list or a reserve for the Worlds, it makes little difference.

"We cannot do anything, we can only let things happen. That's frustrating," Van Kasteren says. "We have not even been allowed to look into the file."

While it has come as a surprise for the outside would that Bart Wellens is involved in the case, that’s not the case for manager Hans Kasteren. "I knew he was one of 19 athletes who have been mentioned. But that does not mean that they have done anything wrong

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"Meeusen and Wellens have told me that they did not use doping. They just used the services of Dr. Mertens (ozone doctor), but that has been known for two years.

"It's a knockout for both. Whether they are guilty or not, the damage has already been done. For two years, we have been doing a lot of work to restore Meeusen and that will now be very difficult.”