Video: Team Sky victory clip captures its own rider in racism row
Team Sky's riders were celebrating a great win, but one of them was involved in a racism row, all captured on camera and inadvertently shared by the team.
Elia Viviani bounced back in great style after being omitted from Team Sky's Giro d'Italia squad. On Friday, just 24 hours after the news broke, he won a stage of the Tour de Romandie.
The Team Sky PR machine went full gas; sharing a video of the riders' victory celebration post stage.
But in the background one of its own was under serious pressure. Gianni Moscon was being challenged in robust fashion by FDJ’s Kevin Reza just after the finish.
The incident related to an allegation by Reza, who is black, that Moscon used racially abusive language towards him on the road
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? Some very happy @TeamSky riders after that win from @eliaviviani. Big leadout, big finish! #TDR2017?? ? pic.twitter.com/rnQgSfW30K
— Team Sky ? (@TeamSky) April 28, 2017
Team Sky said it was aware of the matter. However, it has opted to keep Moscon on the race, adding it would deal with him at its conclusion.
“There’s been an incident between the two riders,” Team Sky directeur Nicolas Portal told cyclingnews.
“There was a big fight at the finish and, yes, it hurt Kevin. After the stage Gianni apologised and we went to see FDJ this morning to make the effort so they know we take it seriously.
“Kevin accepted and that was nice that the two guys could shake hands and that there was an apology. There’s no excuse for that but we moved on.
“This is something we’re going to take seriously after the race... this is really bad. We explained this to Gianni and he understood.”
Adam Yates wins stage, leads race
Meanwhile, Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) won Saturday's stage. As a result he leads the race overall from Nicolas Roche's BMC team mate Richie Porte.
Roche, who is riding in support of Porte, is in 65th place overall, 8:55 down. There remains just one stage; an 18.3km TT in Lausanne.
And with Porte just 19 seconds down he is favourite for the undulating final stage and with it outright victory.
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