Team Katusha has expelled Alexey Tsatevich from the Giro d’Italia, after the Russian rider was caught and subsequently fined for drafting during yesterday’s Individual Time Trial in Chianti.
Despite receiving a fine of 100 Swiss Francs from race officials, along with a time penalty, the Russian team didn’t think that was enough, and withdrew Tsatevich from the race.
Tsatevich was caught on camera by a television crew, that was following closely behind Tobias Ludvigsson (Giant-Alpecin) after he passed the Katusha rider.
From there, Tsatevich proceeded to follow in Ludvigsson’s slipstream for significant period of time, where officials later observed him drafting the Giant-Alpecin rider.
Katusha sports director Dmitry Konyshev said: “First of all, on behalf of Team Katusha, I would like to apologise for Alexey Tsatevich’s behavior during the time trial. The way Tsatevich rode yesterday’s stage was absolutely unacceptable.
“First of all, he broke the clear rule, known by every professional rider. In addition, he also showed a great lack of respect for his rival, the rider who caught him on the course.
“Moreover, he absolutely ignored the team plan for the day, provided and requested by the sports director. His behavior has a huge and negative impact on the image of cycling in general and Team Katusha in particular.
“Accepting the commissaires penalty was not enough for us; we had to take more severe measures. It is not easy to enter the second week of the race with just 8 riders, but I am convinced we’ve made the right decision.”
The penalty moved Tsatevich down to 48th in the standings, but more importantly it will leave general classification contender Ilnur Zakarin with one fewer support riders heading into the second week of the race.
more from Team Katusha…
Team KATUSHA has decided to take its rider Alexey Tsatevich out of the Giro d’Italia 2016 after yesterday’s incident at the individual time trial around Chianti. Alexey Tsatevich seriously violated the rules of riding an individual time trial by drafting on the wheel of another rider for a very long time.
The UCI race commissaires decided to penalize Alexey Tsatevich, according to UCI Article 12.1.040/40.1 (Failure to respect regulation distances and gaps between riders [slip-streaming]) with 100 CHF fine and 6 minutes 48 seconds penalty in the stage classification. Team KATUSHA however judged that this measure was not enough for such poor and unacceptable behavior and pulled the rider out of the race.
– First of all, on behalf of Team KATUSHA, I would like to apologize for Alexey Tsatevich’s behavior during the time trial. The way Tsatevich rode yesterday’s stage was absolutely unacceptable. First of all, he broke the clear rule, known by every professional rider. In addition, he also showed a great lack of respect for his rival, the rider who caught him on the course. Moreover, he absolutely ignored the team plan for the day, provided and requested by the sports director. His behavior has a huge and negative impact on the image of cycling in general and Team KATUSHA in particular. Accepting the commissaires penalty was not enough for us; we had to take more severe measures. It is not easy to enter the second week of the race with just 8 riders, but I am convinced we’ve made the right decision, – said sports director Dmitry Konyshev.
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