Video: The Vuelta punch up that saw two riders thrown off the race

The riders' fight - and one of them later arguing with his manager - looked bad on TV. But was there an over-reaction by the race organisers?

Monday's stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espana was the queen stage, with five cat 1 climbs. The fact race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) emerged victorious and the top 10 on the stage matched the general standings almost identically served only to underline what a great day's competition it was.

But before the racing hit the final climb up to the finish at La Farrapona, a large breakaway had pulled clear from which two men would be thrown off the race.

Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) and Tinkoff-Saxo's Ivan Rovny became involved in a row with around 40km to go.

The fight, in which both took their hands off the bars to punch (more like slap - Ed) each other was captured on the television cameras. It was a prolonged exchange, as the videos below reveal.

They were also spotted by the commissaires and were later thrown off the race.

From the main escape, Brambilla went clear in a three-man move that also featured his team mate Wout Poels and Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale).

However, with around 15km remaining the commissaire's pulled up and told him his race was over

He sat up from the escape and then became embroiled in an animated discussion with management in his team car just behind; all captured on camera and included in the clips below

Rovny was further back the road at that point, but after helping team leader Contador back after a mechanical problem, he too was given his marching orders

The row looked terrible, but surely their disqualification could have waited until after the stage when cool heads had prevailed. Putting them out mid stage meant they had no recourse to appeal.