Riders and administration at Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale have categorically insisted that there was no wrongdoing on their half within the stage 11 incidents that noticed Richard Carapaz (EF Schooling-EasyPost) crash and 4 members of Decathlon – one director and three riders – obtain penalties and, in some instances, fines.
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale presently lead the Vuelta a España with Ben O’Connor. The Australian had an uneventful stage 12 on Thursday, however he spent a big a part of the build-up defending his group’s actions to the media.
The fallout from the Carapaz crash and a near-simultaneous road-blocking motion by Decathlon noticed their Tour de France stage winner Victor Lafay fined 500 CHF for “obstruction by a rider with the intention to forestall or delay the motion of one other rider or automobile”. Decathlon Sports activities Director Cyril Dessel was additionally fined 1,000 CHF, whereas Lafay, Dessel, and two extra riders, Geoffrey Bouchard and Bruno Armirail, had been all given ‘yellow playing cards’, the penalisation system which is being examined out by the UCI this month.
Carapaz was unhurt when he fell within the crash, attributable to a quick second of contact between himself and Bouchard. The accident occurred simply because the French group had been trying to type the cellular highway ‘block’ after 38 riders, none of them main GC threats, had already fashioned the breakaway of the day. The one printed TV footage up to now of the crash, taken from an overhead digicam, was hampered from a direct view of Carapaz’s fall by the cover of a roadside timber.
Talking earlier than stage 13’s begin at Ourense, the 2020 Vuelta a España runner-up categorically put the blame for his fall on the door of Decathlon AG2R, saying “it was very clear”. Nevertheless, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, from Vuelta a España chief Ben O’Connor by way of to Bouchard and Sports activities Director Dessel, had been equally adamant that there had been no wrongdoing.
The UCI commissiares spent a substantial period of time speaking to completely different riders at first of stage 12 however no additional penalties emerged because of this.
The one ‘yellow’ card for Thursday went to Israel-Premier Tech rider Nadav Raisberg for “disposing of waste or different objects exterior of litter zones”. He additionally obtained a 500 CHF fantastic and was docked 25 UCI factors for his misdemeanour.
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Relating to the extra critical occasions of stage 11 and the yellow playing cards that adopted of their wake, O’Connor was insistent that there had been no offence dedicated by his group.
“I actually suppose we did completely nothing flawed. We’ve spoken to EF collectively and all the things is obvious. There was completely zero animosity. Geoffrey did completely nothing,” O’Connor advised reporters earlier than stage 12.
“So I don’t actually perceive the sanctioning of all the opposite boys on my group. I used to be additionally on the entrance and I didn’t obtain a yellow card, neither did Wout van Aert [Visma-Lease a Bike] who was additionally driving subsequent to me. What does it imply? I don’t actually get it.”
Bouchard himself defined that what he insisted was an opportunity occasion had occurred when, with out altering his line, “Carapaz brushed towards my bottom and sadly he fell.
“I don’t know what occurred to him when he crashed, I unclipped and I virtually went down myself. In any case, I’m sorry he went down, it was not my goal. It wasn’t in any method aggressive, I talked together with his sports activities director and there have been no exhausting emotions, and that’s it.”
Dessel supplied one other layer of defence, telling Cyclingnews, “We and the riders are critical individuals, although, there was no motion to attempt to carry him down or something like that”.
In his model of occasions, “[Richard] Carapaz was developing from behind, there was a narrowing on the highway and he collided with Geoffrey [Bouchard] from behind. Carapaz barely drifted to the left facet, then his entrance wheel swerved on the sting of the narrowing part of highway.
“There’s no method you possibly can equate that with a deliberate act by Geoffrey Bouchard to trigger Carapaz to crash.”
Dessel was manifestly unimpressed by the penalties doled out by the UCI, because of this, saying, “We settle for them, however I discover that harsh”. Bouchard echoed his phrases, saying, “I’ve the impression that social media influenced this determination”.
Plenty of opinions
Not all social media confirmed antipathy in the direction of Decathlon AG2R La Mondial, although. O’Connor himself initially printed a collection of Tweets defending his group’s actions and criticizing the UCI’s penalties, however then subsequently wiped his whole account, saying he did so as a result of he was “sick of different individuals’s opinions”.
“I’ve been eager to delete it for a very long time so this was a very good excuse to do it. It’s a contented coincidence, I ought to have carried out it a very long time in the past,” he defined.
The separate query of the ethics of forming a highway ‘block’ additionally permeated by way of the controversy, as Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale lined throughout the width of the highway simply as Carapaz went down. O’Connor admitted that they’d instantly knowledgeable one long-distance GC menace, Cristian Rodríguez (Arkea-B&B Resorts) that “he wasn’t going to have the ability to go within the [early] breakaway”.
“We stated that proper from the beginning when he saved attempting. Zero insults, simply being clear,” he stated.
“In case you’re in the course of the peloton, I can’t simply faucet the bloke in entrance of me to get to the entrance. How do you get to the entrance when the highway’s blocked? Reply me that query. Do you say, ‘Simply earlier than the climb, can I begin first wheel?’ It could be very easy there, however that’s not how the game works.”
“Our riders combat every single day to safe the jersey, like each different group would do,” Dessel added. “They often block the entire highway a bit however with out stopping anyone from shifting forward. We did nothing unlawful.”
Nevertheless, O’Connor denied that simply because he had the purple jersey of Vuelta chief he was now thought-about a peloton ‘patron’.
“No, I’m not waving my arms round appearing like a king. I feel I’m main this race for the time being and if I relinquish that lead so be it. Nevertheless it doesn’t change who I’m.”
But when some riders and administration at Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale delivered sturdy defences of their actions, others merely switched off and waited for the storm to blow over.
“I don’t actually know what that is all about to be trustworthy,” Felix Gall, O’Connor’s wingman, stated after stage 12. “There have been some speak on the bus however I most well-liked to place in my earphones, take heed to some music and simply chill out.”
Whereas the talk over barrages and crashes like Carapaz’s will doubtless rumble on for a while to return, short-term not less than the Vuelta will likely be all however obliged to place the occasions of stage 11 within the rearview mirror.
Stage 13’s summit end at Ancares appears sure to create one other main GC kind out, and stage 15 to Cuitu Negru is yet one more decisive day within the general battle.
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