On Wednesday, the Tinkoff-Saxo rider Sergio Paulinho abandoned the Vuelta a Espana, after an incident involving a race motorbike. It followed on from an earlier incident in the race where a motorbike collided with another Tinkoff rider, Peter Sagan.
The Spanish TV channel RTVE have since said released footage showing how the incident took place.
RTVE have said that it was an accidental collision between the rider and the motorbike. Paulinho had attacked from the peloton and was taking a right-hander when the collision took place.
The footage shows that the rider did not crash, but shouts at the motorbike after the collision. Paulinho subsequently required 17 stitches to his leg. The team threatened to pull out of the race afterwards, but later decided to stay in.
It’s only a matter of time before a rider is seriously hurt or killed, surely there should be a minimum distance rule to adhere to ?
According to last night’s ITV highlights show, the agreement is a distance of about 5-10 metres. However, because of the recent incidents they doubled that figure.
Is it just me or did that not really look like the motorbike was at fault in this one?