Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma – Quick Step) and Ivan Rovny (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) have both been disqualified from the Vuelta a España for fighting mid stage on today's stage from San Martín del Rey Aurelio to La Farrapona Lagos de Somiedo.
What caused the altercation isn't exactly clear but this vine below shows the incident as it appeared on the live TV feed:
Rovny is intially flustered at Brambilla half-wheeling him and gesticulates to Brambilla. He then appears to put his arm round Branbilla but the Italian responds by throwing an arm. Rovny gets that one in the face, but is back for more a little later, ducking one attempted stroke from Brambilla before landing one of his own. They carry on at each other for a good half a minute, and even when the commissaire's car pulls alongside Rovny can't help but have another quick dig.
Brambilla was first to feel the wrath of the race commissaires, receiving his DQ in short order. For a while it looked like the punishment would be one-sided, but when the race director's car pulled back to Rovny and gave him his marching orders too.
And did they deserve to get booted out of the race? Well, we've seen worse…
23 thoughts on “Video: Gianluca Brambilla and Ivan Rovny kicked off the Vuelta for fighting”
Second video proving that
Second video proving that trying to box in cycling shoes is a physical impossibility.
HalfWheeler wrote:Second
I can confirm this from my one attempt at cyclo-boxing. Thank feck smart phones were not around at time to record the pathetic spectacle. Not a single blow was landed by either of us…
Priceless
Priceless =))
No place for that sort of
No place for that sort of thing in our sport.
😀
jimmythecuckoo wrote:No place
Nonsense. Up with that sort of thing! Hilarious.
‘Twas rather a ‘musettes’ at
‘Twas rather a ‘musettes’ at dawn type of affair….
:W
Justice metered equally. It
Justice metered equally. It will be interesting to find out what started the whole episode before flaying arms occurred:)
I feel a bit sorry for
I feel a bit sorry for them.
Sure – they both over reacted but i’d rather see a bit of this than insipid ‘The team were great today……” PR coached drones
No one seems to have been hurt – a metaphorical slap on the wrist would have sufficed.
Some Fella wrote:I feel a bit
Nope, wrong.
This needs stamping on, hard, and it was. The message has gone out loud and clear to the rest of pro cycling. The chief commissaire was spot in in saying that this brought the whole show into disrepute, and also could have lead to serious injury for an innocent party. How shit would it have been for another rider to have been taken out of the race with a serious hurt, just because these two idiots couldn’t control their tempers? If you can’t keep a cool head you shouldn’t be in there. Period.
Skillz!
Skillz!
They got what they deserved,
They got what they deserved, the pair of knobbers.
The truly sad event of the stage was the death of a Guardia Civil motorcycle cop who crashed on the route
http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/09/news/spanish-policeman-dies-motorcycle-accident-vuelta-stage_344602
I find it interesting
I find it interesting Brambilla was immediately excluded but Rovni was allowed to pace Contador up for a while before he was told to sling it.
Didn’t know about the Guardia Civil chap, that is sad.
Agree completely. I bet the
Agree completely. I bet the GC would be different if Contador was not paced up for a while. He wouldn’t have been in a position to sit on Froomes wheel.
Sad news about the death.
turboprannet wrote:I find it
Two very good points.
A bit puzzling about Rovny being allowed to continue and Rodriguez. Although a cynic might say there is something in common for both…
pro fighting on bikes would
pro fighting on bikes would be far more entertaining/brutal if they carried frame pumps.
Not quite this
Not quite this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ0Sazr9Yh4
But then no place in sport, no matter how charged it gets.
Presumably Purito will be
Presumably Purito will be thrown off the race too: http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/philip-deignan-rodriguez-split-my-lip-with-a-punch-on-climb-30571873.html
“Boxing on Bikes” – look out
“Boxing on Bikes” – look out for it on Channel 5 Autumn schedules.
Does anyone else remember
Does anyone else remember everyone’s favourite Texan scumbag getting all punchy on the ’96 Tour? Just before he dropped out there were some great scenes of him windmilling away behind a team car in the rain. The big nobber.
At least give them some
At least give them some jousting lances and let them battle it out properly.
I feel slightly sorry for
I feel slightly sorry for Brambilla as it clearly was Rovny that reached across to him first.
Sean Kelly even assumed on Eurosport that it would be Rovny that would get punished the most as teh instigator.
That said i think if they’d both let it go at one swing each they might still be in the race.
Still it doesn’t look good for the race organisers that Rodrigeuz gets to stay in after doing the exact same thing to Deignan.
Pointbroken wrote:I feel
….and Brambilla retaliated with a couple of shots that would’ve actually hurt.
No place for this in the sport, it wasn’t even close to a proper fight, it was just really embarrassing for both men and the sport. You could see the rest of the riders around them shaking their heads thinking ‘idiots”.
Also, Contador would’ve won anyway.
The original vid is
The original vid is withdrawn, but here’s another one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSQSXQtTO1Y