EF Education-Easy Post have called on the UCI to ‘apply the rules’ after rider Richard Carapaz crashed during stage 11 of the Vuelta a España while the race leader’s team, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, were implementing a mid-race blocking move about 90 kilometres from the finish.
Carapaz fell at a point when teammate Darren Rafferty was attacking, although TV images make it unclear exactly what happened to the Ecuadorian, who is currently 4:10 down and fourth overall. According to race doctor’s report, he was not injured by the crash, but he did lose 15 seconds in the welter of attacks late in the stage.
The UCI handed out multiple ‘yellow cards’ as a result of the controversial incident, with four going to Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, whose leader Ben O’Connor is currently heading the race.
Tour de France stage winner Victor Lafay was fined 500 CHF for “obstruction by a rider in order to prevent or delay the movement of another rider or vehicle", Sports Director Cyril Dessel was fined 1,000 CHF. Lafay, Dessel, Geoffrey Bouchard and Bruno Armirail were all given ‘yellow cards’, the penalisation system which is being tested out by the UCI until the end of the year.
“We just want the UCI to apply their rules,” EF Education-Easy Post sports director Juanma Garate told Cyclingnews on Thursday. “There are regulations in place, and they have to be applied.”
Cyclingnews understands that the UCI commissaires at the Vuelta a España will be talking to all riders involved in the incident or who witnessed it at the stage 12 start this morning prior to taking further action.
Garate did not want to go into further detail as to what he had heard happened during the stage.
Cyclingnews has reached out to both Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and the UCI for comment on the incident.
Stage 12 consists of a 137.5km trek through the mountains of northern Spain, running from Ourense to the summit finish at La Manzaneda.
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