Nils Eekhoff (Netherlands) was fastest of the breakaway
men in the U23 road race at the World Championships.
He threw his arms in the air coming over the line and
celebrated with the Dutch camp just after the line.
However, the joy was not to last. The result was
immediately placed under investigation and the race jury soon disqualified him.
It meant he lost the gold medal and the rainbow bands before he had even got his hands on them.
The title then passed to Italian Samuele Battistella
(Italy), who was delighted to take the world crown irrespective of the
circumstances.
Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland) was then bumped up from
silver to bronze. And the home hero, Tom Pidcock (Great Britain), was promoted
from 4th to the bronze medal.
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The issue that cost Eekhoff the title was the manner in
which he came back to the peloton with over 120km remaining after he had
crashed.
He was judged to have taken assistance from one of the
team cars. The video below appears to be the only footage of what happened.
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