Romain Bardet, the AG2R-La Mondiale rider who finished second overall in last year’s Tour de France, was kicked off Paris-Nice yesterday after accepting the stickiest of stick bottles during the opening stage of the week-long race.
The 26-year-old was caught on camera holding onto his team car, and apologised afterwards for breaking the rules.
Romain Bardet disqualified from Paris-Nice for taking car tow. #ParisNice pic.twitter.com/bUEED8E3Fi
— Peter SagFan (@Peter_SagFan) March 5, 2017
Bardet, who had crashed with 22 kilometres remaining of the stage, took to Twitter to excuse himself, saying that “nothing justifies the prolonged help from a team car” – although that hadn’t stopped him from benefiting himself from a practice he acknowledged is widespread in the peloton.
Mea Culpa. pic.twitter.com/DhhnyblIlp
— Romain Bardet (@romainbardet) March 5, 2017
While Bardet is far from the first pro to take a tow from a team car, such incidents rarely make the headlines and when they do, tend to be because the rider involved is vying for the overall win – as happened when Vincenzo Nibali, fresh from winning the Tour de France, was thrown out of the Vuelta in 2014.
> Video: Vincenzo Nibali thrown off Vuelta after being towed by team car
12 thoughts on “Stickiest of ‘sticky bottles’ gets Romain Bardet kicked out of Paris-Nice”
If that’s the only footage
If that’s the only footage then this seems incredibly harsh. The ‘tow’ was nothing like Nibali’s and it looked as though there was a mechanic tending to his bike which is hardly surprising given the earlier crash.
AST1986 wrote:
It wasn’t the only footage. It went on for ages. They were ‘fiddling’ with his mech at speed for at least two sustained periods, and then decided you use some spray lube, again at speed.
And they had him drafting a few inches behind the rear bumper….all the way back to the main group. I would guess I saw clips of him being aided for at least 10 mins…and certainly long enough to go from being way off the group to being in it.
brackley88 wrote:
Fair enough and credit must therefore go to the commissaires for strong and decisive action.
AST1986 wrote:
you are right though about Nibalis…that was much funnier…this one looked just old skool…
brackley88 wrote:
Also, it wasn’t the bike he crashed on. So shouldn’t have really needed lots of fiddling. Nobody likes to see someone out of a race because of a crash though.
Grinman77 wrote:
Seems spare bikes from the team car always “need” a bit of tinkering after a switch. Mostly the referees exercise some discretion, but I guess if you’re considered a main protagonist for the race, and the assistance is beyond their discretion, then the result is expulsion.
Unless of course you can argue you were just steadying yourself on the way up Ventoux.
The worst I ever saw was a
The worst I ever saw was a Garmin rider blatantly holding onto the back window of a car getting towed up a Mamhead in the 2012? Tour Of Britain.
Ironically he also seemed to receive the largest cheer from the crowd.
That Nibali footage is
That Nibali footage is hilarious, the way he get dragged away from the front of the group, you can just feel that collectivly thinking….wtf
Still, at least he held his
Still, at least he held his hands up, when he’d released them from the car; contrast with Nibali’s strop.
I saw it form the start of
I saw it form the start of the clip and went to do something else. I expected that to be him out of the race, as so many others appeared to be so soon, and when I came back saw he was just jumping the last few drafts to get back in.
I was most surprised
and now I can see why.
He got such a big launch at 1
He got such a big launch at 1:05 that he barely made it around the roundabout.
Several of those turbo boosts led to his demise.
This is extreme ‘mechanical
This is extreme ‘mechanical doping’ and I don’t see any difference to stuffing a motor in the seat tube. Do latter and you would get a ban of months/years. Do former as Bardet and Nibali did (and I suspect Demare also did (without condemning footage) to get back in the front group and win the 2016 Milan–San Remo) and you just/may get thrown off the race with nothing more.