The new yellow playing cards bought a piece out on stage 11 of La Vuelta a España, with seven handed out and the majority of these going to the group of race chief Ben O’Connor.
Fines and 4 yellow playing cards went to Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s Victor Lafay, Bruno Armirail and Geoffrey Bouchard in addition to sports activities director Cyril Dessel. Obstruction to forestall or delay the motion of one other rider or car was cited as the rationale.
The choices got here after the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale group used the not uncommonly employed tactic of spreading out throughout the street to try to cease the stream of riders to a big escape the entrance because it was changing into an increasing number of firmly established, presumably to try to stop riders who might be total threats from chasing too huge a lift up the GC rankings.
Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) fell whereas attempting to work his manner across the group on the fringe of the street, with differing views on the scenario expressed on social media by EF Education-EasyPost’s Jonathan Vaughters and – according to Wielerflits – in now deleted posts by O’Connor.
It was, nevertheless, onerous to find out whether or not or not it was a transfer by a Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider that induced Carapaz to fall or whether or not it was a consequence of the EF Education-EasyPost rider’s place on the tough street edge because the footage of the autumn was partially obscured by the place of a roadside tree.
The yellow card system started on August 1, and is being applied with out sanctions this 12 months, however with elevated punishment for repeat offenders anticipated to be on the rulebook from January 1, 2025.
When asserting the introduction of yellow playing cards the UCI stated: “This initiative may have a dissuasive impact on anybody current within the race convoy (riders, Sport Directors, different drivers and bike riders, and so forth.) who would possibly have interaction in behaviour that would jeopardise the protection of the occasion.”
The different three yellow playing cards handed down on stage 11 had been to Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) for non-compliant positions on the bike and in addition sports activities director Astana-Qazaqstan for irregular help to a rider on his group. The whole of seven yellow playing cards on Wednesday sits in opposition to simply two throughout the primary ten phases of the race.