Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) has been fined 200CHF (£174) for slipstreaming behind a automobile throughout stage six of the Tour de France.
The sprinter, who broke the all-time stage win document in Saint-Vulbas on Wednesday, was proven using behind a automobile after he was dropped from the peloton with round 70km remaining on the stage to Dijon.
The race jury determined to sanction Cavendish for “sheltering behind or profiting from the slipstream of a automobile”. Alongside the high quality, he was docked 10 factors within the factors classification, 40 seconds within the basic classification, and 15 factors within the general UCI rating.
Talking after the stage, Cavendish defined he had had a mechanical downside.
“My chain wrapped and locked in my backside bracket,” he advised the press by his workforce bus. “I began to panic when [there was] a TV digital camera. It is the second time this specific digital camera has carried out it. He goes in the midst of the street and stops the convoy coming, and that creates you out the again.
“A tv digital camera is there to seize photographs, to not affect the race,” he continued. “It is the second time this specific motorcycle has carried out that, and that is while you begin to panic, as a result of when an out of doors management is influencing the race, it is one thing you possibly can’t put together for.”
After the incident, Cavendish rode alongside the race officers’ automobile, earlier than tucking in behind it on his approach again to the peloton.
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The Brit went on to position nineteenth within the remaining dash, which additionally led to race jury motion.
Having initially completed second, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jasper Philipsen was relegated for deviation and fined 500CHF (£435). The workforce’s sports activities director Christoph Roodhooft advised the media afterwards that he acquired a telephone name from the UCI informing him of the choice. “There was no additional remark, only a easy message,” he stated.
Regardless of his high quality, Cavendish stated he had a “actually, actually particular” day within the bunch on Wednesday, after making historical past because the Tour’s all-time stage win document holder.
“I used to be very humbled to be in that peloton in the present day, with the quantity of people that had been genuinely blissful,” he stated. “I had the outdated guys saying, ‘You have given us hope that we will nonetheless do it. Then you definitely’ve acquired Tom, little Tom Pidcock, who got here up and stated, ‘I used to be 9 while you gained your first stage’.”
The day was affected by crosswinds round its midway level, which threatened to separate aside the peloton. “It was about simply staying targeted, which for 3 and a half, 4 hours, is typically tougher than struggling within the mountain days,” Cavendish stated.
The sprinter’s Astana-Qazaqstan teammate Alexey Lutsenko was additionally fined 200CHF for sheltering behind a automobile through the stage, whereas the workforce’s sports activities director Dmitriy Fofonov was fined 500CHF for his automobile’s position within the offence.
The day earlier than, Davide Ballerini acquired a 200CHF high quality for “inappropriate behaviour”, after he stopped with 300m to go to observe his teammate win the stage on a giant TV display screen.
