The UCI has handed out a superb of 200 Swiss Francs to Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek) after the French rider stopped to embrace his spouse and rejoice along with his followers on dwelling roads throughout stage 7 of the Tour de France.
Bernard loved a “dream second” on the uphill a part of the time trial course which was half an hour from his dwelling, with family and friends lining each inch of the roads cheering ‘Julien!’ and holding indicators that mentioned ‘Allez JB’ as he got here previous.
“I used to be actually trying ahead to at the present time. I knew my spouse and my buddies did one thing on the climb,” mentioned Bernard.
“I began fairly quick within the TT, after which I needed to take pleasure in each second on this climb with, as you see, my buddies and all my household. It was was a dream second for me.”
But the jubilation was apparently an excessive amount of for biking’s governing physique, who punished the Frenchman after the stage for “unseemly or inappropriate behaviour through the race and harm to the picture of the game”, in response to the jury’s report.
This was the identical rule cited for Davide Ballerini’s superb on stage 5 after he stopped on the roadside to look at teammate Mark Cavendish dash to a historic victory.
Repetitions of Bernard’s initials lined the roads as he raced to 61st on the day, pushing laborious on the opening part to make sure he might have the second to cease along with his household.
“I pushed respectable energy at first to have the time to take pleasure in this climb. I wish to say I’d go fairly conservative on the TT, however at the moment I made a decision to push extra at first after which, I might have the time on the highest,” mentioned Bernard on the end.
“In the tip, I noticed I used to be not to this point behind. So it was OK. An ideal day for me.”
A day so good, that Bernard was keen to do it precisely the identical regardless of the UCI assessing that he was in want of a superb for such a heartwarming second.
“Sorry, however what was that? I like you a lot,” mentioned Bernard in an initial tweet, before responding sarcastically to the governing body. “And sorry UCI Cycling for having broken the picture of Sport. But I’m keen to pay 200CHF day by day and relive this second.”
Lidl-Trek teammate Toms Skujins responded to the incident as properly with comparable confusion, merely with a screenshot of the superb together with the phrases “UCI doing UCI issues”.
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the Tour de France – together with breaking information and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom from each stage of the race because it occurs and extra. Find out extra.
