On today’s fifteenth stage of the Vuelta a España from Sabiñánigo to Formigal, 91 riders finished 22 minutes outside of the time limit, but the race jury have since announced that the riders will stay in the race.
The stage was won by Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-Quick Step) ahead of race leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and the 91 riders finished 53 minutes and 28 seconds behind the Italian stage winner.
Despite the rules stating that the riders should be eliminated from the race, the Vuelta a España race director Javier Guillen later announced that they would be allowed stay in.
“According to the Commissaires, we decided to allow the 91 riders who were outside the time limit to stay in the race,” said Guillen. “We have made an exception in response to the efforts they have made during the race and especially during yesterday’s stage. An exclusion of the riders would have caused serious damage to the image of cycling and teams.”
The decision to allow the riders to continue didn’t sit well with everybody as Jan Bakelants (Ag2R-La Mondiale) who finished 20th on the stage tweeted: “Curious for the commissaries decision in @lavuelta today. Peloton largely “hors délai”. Allowing them to start, feels a bit like race fraud.”
His fellow pro, Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) who was 44th on the stage, fifteen minutes down, agreed as he responded to Bakelants saying: “@Jan_Bakelants @lavuelta same feeling. They didn’t make an effort to get close to the timelimit”
Koen de Kort (Giant-Alpecin) tweeted afterwards that it was the first time that he had ever missed a time cut and that it had been due to difficulty of the race, as he tweeted: “I have never missed time cut in my life. Not once. Does this say enough about how hard the Vuelta has been? I think so, it’s been brutal.”
He also went on to say the race had been “full gas uphill start after a brutal day yesterday. It split somewhere in the bunch and that was it, no one could chase it back.”
Right or wrong this has always being the case. Safety in numbers
Only froome dog made the time cut for sky.
…wrong
So why are there rules?
might have been very interesting to see the race with those riders sent home.
Wrong, they didn’t even try to make the cut off, need to DQ them. Unprofessional conduct and poor sportsmanship.
Very wrong.. For now the ones who didn’t make it in time, will be better rested than those who did their best to make it in time. This way, better rested teams can make the difference in the next stage.
Bad call. If they were out of the time window, they all should have been binned.
Right very hard race
If they’re not DQ’d, it’s just a club ride.