Groenewegen penalised, but keeps result despite barging Welsford | Video

Dylan Groenewegen repeatedly barged race leader Sam Welsford in the battle to take the wheel of Mark Cavendish just before the final sprint in Hungary

Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla) has been docked time and points, but has been allowed to keep his 2nd place result, after repeatedly barging Sam Welsford (Bora-hansgrohe) in the final sprint on stage 2 at Tour de Hongrie.

Welsford was in the yellow jersey, having won the opening stage, when he and Groenewegen got into a battle for take the wheel of Mark Cavendish, who got a perfect lead-out from his Astana-Qazaqstan team mates.

Groenewegen repeatedly barged Welsford with his left shoulder and succeeded in muscling him off the wheel, with Welsford backing off when he appeared to clip the kerb to his left. Perhaps the only thing that saved Groenewegen was the fact Welsford returned fire as the barging began, until he backed off and then did not feature in the final sprint.

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Cavendish still went on to win the stage, with Groenewegen in 2nd place. The Dutch rider was fined 200 Swiss Francs as well as a 20 per cent penalty in the points classification and a 10-second time penalty for "infringement".

Welsford finished way back in 115th at 1:34 but his team said he had "hit the curb and punctured while battling for positions in the finale". As he had suffered a mechanical, he was credited with the same time as the bunch under the 3km rule.

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It's not the first time the Dutch rider has been in the wars in a sprint as he was banned from racing for nine months after moving to his right in a Tour de Pologne sprint four years ago. On that occasion he ran Fabio Jakobsen into the barriers, causing him to suffer a life-threatening crash.

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