in the Middle of the internal showdown in the board of directors of the Danish Cycling Union about the dismissal of Jesper Worre as the director of the etapeløbet Around Denmark is also a case of possible abuse of power on the table, learns ekstrabladet.
Chairman Henrik Jess Jensen is accused of having abused his position to promote his daughter’s cycling career, as he is highly intimidating appearance must have pressure then kvindelandstræner Catherine Marsal to take the daughter to the european championships in the Czech republic in 2018.
Catherine Marsal don’t even want to rip up the old wounds. She confirms, however, that a member of the board in DCU recently requested her detailed description of the process to use for discussions, by a number of extraordinary board meetings in these weeks.
Henrik Jess Jensen announces in an email to Ekstra Bladet, that he did not want to comment on bestyrelsesanliggender, but that he would like to make it clear that ‘I am not, of course, has put pressure on someone to promote my daughter’s career’.
Henrik Jess Jensen keeps talking, as Mads Pedersen is celebrated at the city Hall for his WORLD championship win in Yorkshire. Photo: Philip Davali / Ritzau Scanpix.
the Story of Catherine Marsal seems to be known at all levels of the Danish Cycling Union, and is now also discussed in the board of directors. Ekstra Bladet has spoken with a wide range of people in the DCU, which confirms that they have heard of the Marsals clashes with Henrik Jess Jensen.
It took place at the Danish on the Lolland-Falster, denmark, in June 2018. Ekstra Bladet learns that Henrik Jess Jensen after a run matched the national coach up in the target area, and stood up in front of her with his face only a few centimeters from her.
In umisforståelige terms he demanded that Marsal had to take his daughter to the upcoming european championship in the Czech republic. Clearly shocked pulled Marsal back and left the shaken area.
the Extra Leaf has been informed that two persons witness the scene, namely, Solveig Uhre, who is chairman of the Girl and femm in the DCU, and Joachim Parbo, who is an alternate member of DCU’s board of directors.
Solveig Uhre would on Thursday last week in the first place like to talk about the episode, but when the interview would take place a few hours later, she was come on other thoughts.
– There is something I’ve mastered since last time, we talked together. There is a process, so I will not say more right now, said Uhre and did not want to elaborate on what process is talking about.
Older photo of Joachim Parbo, as in his active career as a cykelcrossrytter was plural Danish champion. Photo: Ernst van Norde / Ritzau Scanpix.
Joachim Parbo confirms that he at a distance, was witness to a scene by DM, where Henrik Jess Jensen apparently rebuked Catherine Marsal. He did not hear what was said, he tells.
– I saw two people who were agitated. One was driving while the other was in the more receiving end. And then I saw a person go weeping away.
– I did not know what it was about, but I thought it might be related to the national team, he says.
the Day after the incident by DM was Marsal approached by the then elite and administration manager in the DCU, Jens-Erik Majlund. He came to inform her that Henrik Jess Jensen’s daughter absolutely should be taken to the EM, which Marsal so reluctantly had to do.
a year later, Catherine Marsal redundant to many people’s great amazement. She was then sports director at Bigla Pro Cycling, but has today left the sport. In his active career as a rider won the Catherine Marsal four times olympic gold.
the Extra Leaf has offered the six-man DCU-board the opportunity to comment on the matter. Four members have refused, while two have not returned.
——— SPLIT ELEMENT ———
No mixing
Jens-Erik Majlund took over in 2017, the difficult task of rebuilding the DCU, which had ended in severe economic crisis. He managed to turn things around. He left the DCU in the beginning of 2020. Photo: Kenneth Lysbjerg Koustrup / Ritzau Scanpix.
An important principle of board work is that one working for the organization, you are sitting in the board, rather than for the individuals in the organization – for example, one’s own family members or themselves.
This principle sought DCU’s then the elite and administration manager, Jens-Erik Majlund, to have enshrined in writing in the union’s guidelines for proper behavior – the so-called ‘code of conduct’ – in september 2018.
It came to pass at the first board meeting after the showdown between DCU president Henrik Jess Jensen and kvindelandstræner Catherine Marsal. A participant was given to Ekstra Bladet, that the episode was not discussed at the meeting, but that it was in the cards that it was just the drive Majlund to take up the subject.
Jens-Erik Majlund has today left the DCU. Two times he has to Ekstra Bladet refused to explain its decisions as the daily leader, although he of the sources designated as Henrik Jess Jensen’s puppet in the case of Catherine Marsal.
Erhvervskvinden Hanne Blume, which is 1. alternate member of DCU’s board of directors, was also present at the meeting. She has heard Marsal-the story of rygtebasis, she says, but she has not thought about, that it should have a link to the agenda at the meeting in september 2018.
– You must be careful not to rely on rumors, so I have kept me from it, says Hanne Blume.
– I will at any time say that if there is a mismatch, then there must be cleared up in it, and we must also do that in the DCU. But it is not something I’m specifically familiar with.
——— SPLIT ELEMENT ———
No one pressured me
In the job as elitechef is Morten Bennekou one of the most powerful people in Danish cycling. Photo: Tariq Mikkel Khan.
Five months after that, Morten Bennekou, had abandoned a career as a sports director at Team Sunweb to be elitechef in the DCU, fired the he Catherine Marsal in may last year.
And it was his own decision, which was a result of his own reflections on the course, as the Danish cycling should take. No one pressured him to fire Catherine Marsal.
he rang out of the blue in order to emphasize to Ekstra Bladet recently.
– I reject completely that it had nothing whatsoever with any members of the board to do – neither the chairman or the other, said Bennekou.
– I have at no time been, or felt pressured by any of the board, and I would also never let me press anything.
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