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UCI "strongly condemns" Nacer Bouhanni for pushing Jake Stewart into barriersNacer Bouhanni barges Jake Stewart.PNG

UCI "strongly condemns" Nacer Bouhanni for pushing Jake Stewart into barriers

World cycling's governing body refers yesterday's incident to its Disciplinary Commission, but French sprinter insists it was not “intentional" despite TV evidence...
by Simon_MacMichael
Mon, Mar 29, 2021 11:19
7

The UCI says it "strongly condemns" the actions of Arkea-Samsic rider Nacer Bouhanni following an incident in  yesterday's Cholet-Pays de la Loire race in which he pushed Groupama-FDJ rider Jake Stewart into the barriers as the pair contested the final sprint. The French sprinter insists it was not “intentional," although TV footage strongly suggests otherwise.

Bouhanni was disqualified from the results, and world cycling's governing body also said that it "has decided to refer the incident to its Disciplinary Commission and demand the imposition of sanctions that are appropriate to the seriousness of this action."

A number of Twitter users commenting on the incident likened it to the crash during the Tour de Pologne last year that resulted in Deceuninck-Quick Step rider Fabio Jakobsen being placed in an induced coma after Dylan Groenewegen of Jumbo-Visma pushed him into crash barriers during a sprint.

Groenewegen was handed a nine-month ban by the UCI Disciplinary Commission following the incident, which happened during a downhill sprint in the opening stage of the race last August.

Meanwhile British rider Stewart, who had been challenging for the win but ended up finishing 29th, took to Twitter yesterday evening to tell Bouhanni that he had "no respect" for other riders' safety.

But in a statement released through his Arkea-Samsic team today, Bouhanni insisted the incident was not “intentional" despite the TV evidence.

“I'm sorry for Jake Stewart. The sprint went like this: I saw Elia Viviani launch and I wanted to take his wheel.

“I will admit that my mistake was to change course to take his wheel. I didn’t see Jake Stewart at this point.

“When we come into contact with each other I find myself unbalanced. I made up for it as best I can so as not to fall.

“I just wanted to take the slipstream because the wind was coming from the right side, by no means was it intentional," he added.

UCI Disciplinary Commission
Nacer Bouhanni
Jake Stewart
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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7 comments

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HLaB | 3 years ago
0 likes

Was that the new design of barriers?

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PRSboy | 3 years ago
3 likes

Bouhanni is a nasty piece of work with anger management issues, and has form for doing similar things before. 

Should be a one year ban, and after what happened to Jakobsen, this sort of behaviour needs making an example of.

He was not even contesting the sprint as he stopped pedalling to shoulder barge! 

Avatar
HarrogateSpa | 3 years ago
4 likes

This is an opportunity for the Disciplinary Commission to show its sanctions are based on the actions of the rider, not just the consequences which happened to occur as a result.

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schlepcycling replied to HarrogateSpa | 3 years ago
0 likes
HarrogateSpa wrote:

This is an opportunity for the Disciplinary Commission to show its sanctions are based on the actions of the rider, not just the consequences which happened to occur as a result.

He's French so I suspect he'll get away with it. 

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lesterama | 3 years ago
0 likes

If you watch the whole sprint, it seems to be revenge for Stewart getting on the wheel of Bouhanni's lead-out man. Bouhanni could have gone the other round and placed second or third.

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Rendel Harris | 3 years ago
4 likes

That's a real shocker. I wonder (not that it would excuse it in any way) if Bouhanni had some previous beef with Stewart - that action in no way helps his sprint, in fact it totally scuppers it, hard to conclude it was anything but a deliberate attack, as opposed to barging for position. He's got a long record of physical attacks.

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Secret_squirrel | 3 years ago
3 likes

Good.  That was clearly a warrantless barge, which if not for the better designed safety barriers and Jakes bike handling skills could have ended in hospitalisation or worse. 

Hope they throw the book at him.

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