After riding for very nearly 200km in the breakaway and almost surviving to the finish, Ryan Mullen (leading) was well within his rights to voice his anger.
Irish riders Dan Martin and Ryan Mullen have both vented their anger at what they believe was inappropriate behaviour by some of the motos on the Volta ao Algarve stage 4 today.
After a series of high profile and tragic crashes, some of them fatal, last year the UCI has introduced rules aimed at curbing motos mixing with riders.
The rules are aimed at not only making conditions safer for the riders but also ensuring fairer play.
Aside from some horrible crashes, on a number of occasions last year riders were severely held up by motos on major climbs.
And others unfairly benefitted from drafting at the back of the press and race officials’ motos.
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Dan Martin didn't exactly look overjoyed on the podium today and he didn't sound too pleased on Twitter either, see below.
The race leader in Portugal, Primoz Roglic (Lotto-JumboNL), was filmed in the slipstream of a moto during the stage 3 TT where he claimed 3rd and took the lead from Martin.
The incident was not the rider’s fault, with the moto driver apparently losing concentration and drifting back towards Roglic.
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Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) took to Twitter to highlight the case and Martin had last week Tweeted a photo of a riders apparently in the slipstream of a moto at the Tour of Oman.
Today the Irish rider, now 6th overall in Algarve and leading the climbers’ classification, complained on Twitter after today’s stage – see Tweet below – that the new rules only had a value if they were enforced.
He said there were still motos in the peloton and drafting was still an issue.
And Mullen echoed those sentiments saying he was very disappointed to learn after the stage that the peloton’s chase that ended his breakaway hopes with just 2km remaining had been aided by drafting.
Dear @UCI_cycling Rules are worthless without enforcement. Nothing has changed regards motos #motorpacing #motosinpeloton #dangerous
— Dan Martin (@DanMartin86) February 18, 2017
Kind of sucks to hear the peleton had the draft of the motorbikes in the final today. Don't mind being caught when it's fair and square....
— Ryan Mullen (@ryanmullen9) February 18, 2017
Spent almost 200k up the road today with my cake shop companion @DionSmithy
Got caught with 1.5k to go. We gave it a good nudge hey mate?— Ryan Mullen (@ryanmullen9) February 18, 2017
Felt good to represent @Ride_Argyle out there today and vent out some frustration left over from yesterday.
Next time.— Ryan Mullen (@ryanmullen9) February 18, 2017
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