Video: Chaos in Catalunya over these ‘innocent pushes’ mid-stage
Movistar has been stripped of the stage win and the whole team has now been penalised. It means the race has had four race leaders though only two stages have taken place so far!
It may have seemed like a harsh punishment at first glance; a rider suffering a time penalty and losing his race lead, all for simply helping his team mates with some 'innocent pushes'.
However, the event was the team time trial at the Volta A Catalunya yesterday, with the team in question, Movistar, running out winners.
They beat BMC Racing by just two seconds.
But Movistar’s Jose Joaquin Rojas had pushed two of his team mates back into the line as the team was going flat out. One of them in particular looked like he may go out the back, see video.
Keeping them there and ensuring no big gaps opened in the line was surely worth a time gain for Movistar. Very likely it was worth the two seconds they beat BMC by; and probably significantly more.
Related News
Rojas was first over the line for Movistar and best placed of the team in the opening stage, taking 6th. So he took the race lead and was presented with the leader’s jersey.
Advertisement
However, he was later penalised by three minutes and so lost the lead. But it passed to his team mate Alejandro Valverde.
Only the individual riders involved in the pushing were punished, not the whole team. It seemed strange, especially since the margin between Movistar and BMC was so tight.
However, the commissaires on the race have now decided to penalise the whole Movistar team by one minute and have awarded the stage win and leader’s jersey to BMC.
In chaotic scenes, it seems the French version of the rules says only the riders involved in pushing in a TTT should be penalised but the English version says the whole team should be penalised.
And because Ben Hermans was first over the line in the team test for BMC he is now the race leader. He is the fourth man to be in the race lead though only two stages have taken place.
Davide Cimolai (FDJ) won Monday’s opening stage in a bunch sprint and took the race lead.
Rojas was initially awarded the race lead after the team TT, before it switched to his team mate Valverde and now to Hermans.
Today’s stage is a summit finish, with Irish rider Dan Martin looking to repeat his victory on this stage 12 months ago.
Topics
