Barbara Malcotti of the team Human Powered Health was disqualified from Tour de France Femmes on 27th July, Thursday. Never in her dreams, she would have imagined that a simple act will get her out of the game. She changed her bike in front of the peloton, instead of behind it. The act was termed as ‘irregular assistance’ at stage 5.
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Andrew Bajadali, the team’s director did not seem to sit well with the decision. He called out the authorities for giving out such a harsh punishment. The former professional rider said:
It’s a call that, in my opinion, is very harsh from the commissaire. They could have fined us 500 to 1,000 francs, or given us a severe warning, and moved on from it
He continued to add:
It wasn’t an urgent situation, it was still 80 to 90km to go in the stage. There was a breakaway off, a completely safe situation for everyone. It was no advantage to Barbara at all – who got DQ’d. It’s difficult for us, and technically we were in the wrong but in the circumstance, it’s a harsh call
Barbara had to make the switch because her shifter was not working properly. So the team decided to help her right away, Bajadali further clarified the situation:
We were servicing Antri up in the break, it had three and a half, almost four minutes. Barbara got on the mic and said she needed a bike change, she had broken her shifter. We made the call to pull off and wait for the bunch
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The team was well aware of the rule that a shift or any technical assistance can only be made at the rear of the bunch. Barbara was clearly devastated as the authorities called and asked her to pull to the side of the road. Banjali was pumped up, but he decided to keep matters on the respectful side. Nevertheless, he did say that such incidents do not look good for the race:
It’s bad for everyone involved. It doesn’t look good for the race, in my opinion, it doesn’t look good for us, or for anyone. Why is she DQ’d? It’s a really weird thing. It’s a weird call. We need to move on. It’s something that will always stay with me and I will never forget this. I think every DS and team and a mechanic needs to know
The decision came in, in accordance with the UCI rule 2.3.030.
Also Read: Lorena Wiebes Bags Second Victory At Tour De France Femmes
Featured Image Via YouTube/ Federciclismo
