‘It was fair that I got it' - Alessandro Romele accepts yellow card for crash incident that led to Luca Van Boven Vuelta a España abandon

MONACO, MONACO - AUGUST 23: A general view of Harold Tejada of Colombia, Yevgeniy Fedorov of Kazakhstan, Lorenzo Fortunato of Italy, Victor Langellotti of Monaco, Henok Mulubrhan of Eritrea, Cristian Rodriguez of Spain, Alessandro Romele of Italy, Darren Van Bekkum of Netherlands and Team XDS Astana prior to the La Vuelta - 81st Tour of Spain 2026, Stage 2 a 214.3km from Monaco to Manosque 408m / #UCIWT / on August 23, 2026 in Monaco, Monaco. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images).

XDS-Astana rider Alessandro Romele has said it was "fair" that he received a yellow card for indirectly causing Luca Van Boven (Lotto-Intermarché) to crash on stage 7, and that Van Boven then abandoned the Vuelta a España the following day as a result of his injuries.

Some 20 kilometres from the finish on stage 7, Romele lost balance and closed off Van Boven on the right-hand side of the road, with the Belgian racer spinning over a pavement and falling heavily. Van Boven remounted his bike and completed the mountainous stage, ending with a summit finish at Aramón Valdelinares, but was later diagnosed with much more serious injuries than were initially thought, including two broken ribs and a collapsed lung.