Vincenzo Nibali has said his social media accounts were verified with "blue ticks", for public figures, immediately after his disqualification from the Vuelta in 2015.
The Italian, and winner of all three Grand Tours, explained the negative publicity he received after being so obviously towed by his team car was so huge around the world that social media companies instantly upgraded his status on their platforms.
Back in 2015 the incident that saw him disqualified - see video above - occurred on stage 2 of the race. He was trying to catch the reduced peloton after a crash when his directeur decided he should be towed back up.
Nibali disappeared on the side of the Astana team car up to the group ahead during the incident that was caught from above by the TV helicopter.
Advertisement
Related News
"Do you know how I got the blue check for all my
social media accounts?" Nibali asked former pro Raffale Ferrara on an
Instagram live video. "By getting thrown out of the Vuelta Espana, the
team car tow."
He said the Astana directeur Alexandre Shefer came to him later and apologised for grabbing onto him and towing him up to the group ahead, before adding he was subjected to ridicule over the incident.
“I broke my bike and I was delayed. On the way back, I
lost my bidon on a bump,” he said of his crash on that eventful day.
“The Kazakh DS caught me and as he gave me more bottles he pulled me hard, so hard that I risked ending up in the ravine. The helicopter was above and took the shots that went around the globe."
He added he was so annoyed about what happened he resolved to redouble his training and when he came back to racing he hit a winning run as a result.
He took a string of podium results including winning Coppa Bernocchi (1.1), Tre Valli Varesine (1.HC) and Il Lombardia (1.UWT) having won a stage at the Tour and placed 4th overall earlier in the year as well as winning the Italian road race crown.
Topics
