A man who threw a bicycle into the path of riders at the Giro d’Italia last week is to be deported from the country, it has been revealed.
The shocking incident happened as a three-man breakaway – including eventual stage winner Damiano Cima – sped through the town of Conegliano in the Veneto on last Thursday’s Stage 18 of the race.
Another spectator ran onto the road to retrieve the bike just as the riders approached to avert what could have been a serious crash.
What's all this about?! #Giro pic.twitter.com/7QOQkfPOVv
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 30, 2019
The culprit – seen in the above video walking away from the scene, wearing a grey hoodie – was arrested shortly afterwards.
EF-Education First rider Sacha Modolo subsequently posted footage to Twitter showing the incident from another angle.
— Sacha Modolo (@SachaModolo) May 30, 2019
The man has since been identified as a 44-year-old Tunisian national, living in Vittorio Veneto, and with previous drug-related convictions, reports Oggi Treviso.
The newspaper says that a file has been opened to have him deported from the country as soon as possible.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.