The heat and the need for bidons led to a raft of penalties on stage 12 of the 2026 Vuelta a España with four directors and four riders fined for irregular feeding.
Five riders were also fined for disposing of waste outside of the litter zones, including race leader Enric Mas (Movistar).
Mas and teammate Raul Garcia Pierna received a 500CHF fine and were docked 25 UCI points for the offence, along with stage winner Jakob Ormzel (Bahrain Victorious) and Jarno Widar (Lotto Intermarché).
The fines followed two stages without penalties.
Earlier in the race, Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana) earned a yellow card during stage 7 after sparking an unfortunate crash for Lotto-Intermarché's Luca Boven.
Romele appeared to be standing stiff-legged on his bike, perhaps stretching, as the peloton freewheeled through a town, but when he hit a speed hump, he lost control and swerved to the right, pushing Boven into the kerb.
The Belgian had nowhere to go, and tumbled onto the pavement on his backside. Although he was eventually able to get back up and finish the stage, he came across the line dead last, 33 minutes behind stage winner Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility).
The dicey move earned Romele a yellow card for 'Improper conduct that endangers others', according to the race communique.
It was the third yellow card of the race after two were handed out on stage 5 after some dicey actions in the reduced bunch sprint into Terres de l'Ebre.
Alexey Lutsenko (NSN Cycling) was given a yellow card for deviating from his line in the sprint, while Orluis Aular (Movistar) was relegated from sixth place to 89th, was given a yellow card and docked eight points for elbowing another rider during the sprint.
Over the three weeks and 21 days of racing in a Grand Tour, there are many chances for riders and teams to break rules – purposefully or inadvertently.
Penalties can be issued for many things, from small issues like feeding too late in a stage or dropping litter outside the designated zone to bigger ones like dangerous sprint deviations and/or prolonged sticky bottles.
Punishments can include cash fines, ranging from a few hundred Swiss francs to the thousands (fines are always issued in Swiss francs, CHF, the currency of the UCI). Riders can also be punished with time deductions, point deductions in certain classifications, relegation, even disqualification for the most serious infringements.
Penalties are generally proportional to the offence; for example, dropping litter may result in a cash fine, but a sticky bottle that saves time might earn a time penalty. Cash fines are generally deducted from the team's prize money haul at the end of the race.
Dangerous infractions can also earn a rider a yellow card, a system introduced a couple of years ago. If a rider or staff member receives more than one yellow card in the same race, they are disqualified and suspended for seven days. Three in 30 days earns a 14-day suspension, whilst six in a year means a 30-day suspension – though this is yet to happen.
The race jury hands out penalties and records them in each day's communiqué.
We are tracking all penalties handed out during the 2026 Vuelta a España.
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Vuelta a España 2026 fines, penalties and yellow cards
Stage 1-4
- None
Stage 5
- Alexey Lutsenko (NSN Cycling): Deviation from the chosen line that endangers another rider during the final sprint (blow from the elbow) - Yellow card
- Orluis Aular (Movistar): Deviation from the chosen line that endangers another rider during the final sprint (blow from the elbow) - Yellow card, Relegation, -8 points toward green jersey
- Sven Vanthourenhout (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe DS) - Rider disposing of waste or other objects outside of litter zones, or not returned to team or organisation staff - 500CHF fine
Stage 7
- Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana) - yellow card for 'Improper conduct that endangers others'
- Irregular feeding: Alexey Lutsenko (NSN), Lorenzo Fortunato and Hekok Mulueberhan (XDS Astana) - 200CHF each. Also, Decathlon DS Cyril Dessel, XDS Astana DS Alexandr Shefer, and NSN DS Jonathan McCarty 500CHF each.
Stage 8
- Sven Vanthourenhout (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe DS) - 500 CFH fine for a rider disposing of waste or other objects outside of litter zones
Stage 9
- Rafael Ferri Valls (Jayco-AlUla DS) - 200CHF for failing to respect the instructions of the commissaires.
- Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates-XRG DS) - 500CHF for irregular feeding
Stage 12
- Enric Mas, Raul Garcia Pierna (Movistar), Jakob Ormzel (Bahrain Victorious), Valentin Paret Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep) and Jarno Widar (Lotto Intermarché) - 'Rider disposing of waste outside of litter zones' - 500CHF, -25 UCI points each
- Remy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ United), Hugo Houle (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Marco Brenner (Tudor) and Chris Hamilton (Picnic-PostNL) - 'Irregular feeding - feeding from team car in a posted feed zone' - 200CHF
- Jens Keukeleire (Alpecin DS), Bart Leysen (Tudor DS), Benoit Vaugrenard (Groupama DS) and Phil West (Picnic DS) - 500CHF for Irregular feeding
