Giro d'Italia: Aru penalised 20 seconds for drafting

22 May 2018 04:25
Giro d'Italia commissaires dished out a handful of time penalties for drafting during Tuesday's stage 16 individual time trial, including a 20-second slap to UAE Team Emirates' Fabio Aru for pacing behind a police motor over the 34.2km course from Trento to Revereto. The Italian remains 22nd overall, now 24:34 behind overall leader Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott). Officials hit Aru's teammates Valerio Conti and Diego Ulissi the hardest, with each receiving two-minute penalties. Ulissi caught Conti before the first check, having started one minute behind him. Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy), Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and Remi Cavagna (Quick-Step Floors) were each docked 30 seconds. Chief Commissiare Randall Shafer of the US said the UCI judges decided on the penalties after reviewing images from helicopters and from television, following up on reports from motor commissaires of incidents involving prolonged drafting.ADVERTISEMENT “We made the best decisions based on the speeds we had and based on the distance that was recorded on the television as well as the normal penalties based on the observations of the commissaires," Shafer said. “We had some that were significant and others that were not so significant. And some that we want to enforce the fact that we’re watching and that the television is watching, that the media is watching and that the public is watching.” Shafer confirmed that the UCI judges used the new video referee technology to catch the cheats. A UCI judge watches all the different television images in a special cabin at the finish area. “We see more now that we have the video technology and we took into consideration that the rest of the world sees it. It’s important for us to take a disciplined approach with the riders,” he said. You can read more at Cyclingnews.com.read full article

Source: Cycling News