Giro d'Italia: 'If they want trouble, they have it with finishes like this' say Deceuninck
Viviani chooses silence after stage win is awarde𝔉d to Gꦑaviria
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Elia Viviani clearly didn't want to say something he might later regret. The Italian champion had spent long minutes in the video commissaire's truck at the finish line in Orbetello, reviewing footage of the closing metres of stage 3 of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Giro d'Italia as though it were the Zapruder film. Now, after trying and failing to overtuඣrn the decision to strip him of stage victory, Viviani was of little mind to make his case all over again for the assembled t🅺elevision cameras.
Instead, Viviani walked silently to his bike and pedalled slowly towards his 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Deceuninck-Quick Step bus, parked a mile away on the seafront. Another scrum of reporters was waiting for him when he skidded to a halt there, but the 🔯30-year-old evaded them by dismounti🎉ng from his bike and climbing up the stairs in one deft motion.
It was a manoeuvre of a different kind that saw Viviani relegated from first place to the back of the bunch. Viviani was tucked in behind stage 2 winner Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) when the sprint began before moving to his left to come around the German with 75 metres to go. That motion brought him into the path of Matteo Moschetti, however, and the race jury decreed that this deviation had impeded the Trek-Segafredo rider, with the stage win instead awarded to a surprised Fernando Gaviria ও(UAE Team Emirates).
Read more:
- Gaviria wins Giro d'Italia stage 3 as Viviani relegated in sprint
- Gaviria says Viviani deserved to win Giro d'I🎐♓talia stage 3
- 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Viviani relegaꦉted in Giro d'🧜Italia stage 3 sprint
- Trek-Sega﷽fredo DS regrets Moschetti's lost opportunity in Giro d'Italia
- Gavi👍ria takes Giro stage 3 win aftওer Viviani gets relegated – Video
Peter Sagan's ejection from the 2017 Tour de France convinced the UCI to introduce a video commissaire in the Grand Tours and Monuments last season. Bruno Valčić is the man in the video truck on this year's Giro, but while Deceuninck-Quick Step directeur sportif Rick Van Slycke saw the same footage of the sprint finish as the Croatian, he interpreted the images altogether differently.
"Look yourself to the sprint and you will see," Van Slycke said. "He came out of the wheel of Ackermann and he took the left side. He didn't see Moschetti and Moschetti was behind him. Then Elia takes his line and now they disqualify 🦩him.
"If they disqua🅰lify for this, then they will have a lot of work to do in the next sprints, I think. But we will see. They have to decide, and we have to wait."
Trouble
Disqualifications for irregular𒆙ities in the sprint are a recurring trend in Giro history and rare is the rider who admits culpability. Mario Cipollini, for instance – the man who holds the record for Giro stage wins – long maintained his final total should be 43 rather than 42, citing his disqualification in Cento in 1995, when Ján Svorada was awarded the victory.
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Van Slycke, for his part, argued that the technical finale in Orbetello was itself in contraventi🌼on of recommended practice for a Grand Tour finale. He pointed to the two nigh-on 90-degree t🐬urns forming a chicane inside the final 500 metres, though the sprinters had already safely navigated those obstacles before Viviani opened his sprint.
"There are technical guides and assistance from the UCI but if you see the finish, this is not a fini💦sh for a big tour," Van Slycke said. "That's one point. It's not because he's disqualified. But they should start there. If they want trouble, they have trouble with finishes like this."
Van Slycke's fellow directeur sportif Davide Bramati, meanwhile, noted that the headwind in the finishing straight meant that the fast men all started th꧙eir efforts far later than they woulꦫd otherwise have done. Viviani's decision to change his line thus came far closer to the finish banner than might normally have been the case.
"Today I think eve⛎rybody knew there was a 65kph headwind so for the sprint you🍎 had to go at 75m to go. It wasn't a case of sprinting from 200m to go," Bramati said.
Regardless of Viviani's intent or lack thereof, however, the race jury deemed that his movement had impeded Moschetti🌠, and he was thus stripped of what would have been the sixth Giro stage win of his career.
There was sympathy for Vivani's plight from his old teammate Gaviria, the man who inadvertently benefited from the jury's decision. Gaviria had to be summoned from the shower on the UAE Team Emirates bus to take his place in the podiuꦓm ceremony, but speaking before he learnt of his elevation to first place, he pointed out that contact with other riders was almost an inevitability in such a fraught finale.
"I think I touched with one guy of Trek," Gaviria said. "But in꧟ this sprint, iܫt was impossible not to touch other riders."
Barry Ryan was Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since🔴 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of , published by Gill Books.