Giro maglia rosa Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo) cut an emotional figure at the end of the Blockhaus stage yesterday, partly because he fought hard and retained his race lead but also because of his regrets over a racing incident.
The Spanish rider was clearly genuine when he apologised to Sam Oomen (Jumbo Visma) after throwing a bidon at him during an incident when López almost crashed and had to briefly unclip just inside the final 20km.
The incident - while hard to see - is captured in the videos below. The clips show it all happened in a split second. Without doubt, López was under pressure at the time and a rush of blood to the head saw him fling the bottle towards Oomen, who had inadvertently squeezed him towards a parked car on the right.
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López then suffered a second, more serious, incident with 8.1km to go. Again he was squeezed at the side of the road - as he tried to stay as far over to the right as he could to get shelter - after rubbing the rear wheel of the rider ahead of him. This time he had to unclip for a few seconds and he lost his place in the select group, led by Ineos Grenadiers at the time.
To his immense credit, López highlighted the first incident himself in his remarks after the stage during his TV interview and seemed very genuine when apologising for it.
“Before any questions, I want to say sorry to Sam Oomen because in one moment of tension, he tried to push me and I lost my mind and threw a bottle at him,” said Lopez. “I want to say sorry.”
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Thankfully, he did not suffer any sanction for the incident, which could have resulted in a time penalty and the loss of his race lead.
These things happen, especially when riders are under extreme pressure. And now López is still in the leader's jersey - which he took on the Mount Etna stage 4, when rode away from the breakaway with Lennard Kämna (Bora-hansgrohe).
Found it at 16,9 km to go. It happens at the black vehicle on the right. Too bad it is an airshot so zooming in makes the quality go really bad ? pic.twitter.com/uWHNzKnw1U
— Debby ?? (@Debby_Drckx) May 15, 2022
