Adam Blythe has recorded and published a video clip, above, insisting that he did not suggest Remco Evenepoel was feigning having punctured in the finale of stage 16 at La Vuelta today. He has insisted he was merely commentating on what he was watching on the TV coverage, adding the puncture was not visible to him at the time.
Blythe has now said having seen a video shot by a fan on the roadside where Evenepoel stopped, it appeared "clear enough" his back wheel was punctured. Blythe also felt the need to address comments on social media - picked up in the European press - suggesting he had said the puncture was faked. He had remarked on air earlier that both Evenepoel's tyres seemed "pumped up" and puncturing at that point was a "little too convenient".
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"I just want to clear one thing up," Blythe said in his message published on Twitter hours after the live broadcast show had ended. "I was commenting on Remco's wheel today because of what we could see and only what we could see. As I said, to me it didn't look like it was flat.
"I have seen since, another video from someone at the side of the road showing that back tyre, clear enough for me to say that it was a flat tyre. So anyone trying to tell me I was insinuating Remco was cheating… I am not."
Earlier on the broadcast Blythe was commentating on the incident in the finale when Vuelta leader Evenepoel (QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl) pulled over to the roadside to change bikes inside the final 3km as his main rival for the race lead, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), was attacking off the front.
Blythe said at the time: "I really want to see that bike of Remco's to see what the problem was. We he stopped at the side of the road, he's not crashed, that's obvious, you can tell. The number two is… both wheels looked to me like they were pumped up, so it's not a puncture."
He added if Evenepoel's gears had somehow gone into his back wheel, such an issue was a mechanical but not one that would necessarily mean pedaling was impossible.
"I'd like to go and see that bike, to see what the problem was," Blythe stated, before noting the tyres were tubeless and if one was punctured fluid should be coming from it.
