Lasse-Norman Hansen (Cannondale-Garmin) won the fifth stage at the Tour of Alberta in Spruce Grove in the most unusual and confusing way. The Danish rider was rounding the last of two finishing circuits with a one-minute lead and roughly two kilometres to go when a race official drove up beside him and told him that he had won.
Hansen had no idea that his chaser Sven Erik Bystrøm (Katusha) had missed a right-hand turn onto McLeod Avenue, which led to the entry of the finishing circuits, or that the entire peloton behind had missed the same turn. The turn in question was not blocked off and Bystrøm noted on the Katusha team's website that he had followed the motorbikes straight off course, though the team did not file a protest.
Race officials decided to give Hansen the victory and his time was based on his first passage across the finish line, at the end of the first circuit, even though he completed the two full circuits.
ADVERTISEMENT
Laurent Didier (Trek Factory Racing), who had been dropped from the main field with two kilometres before the circuits after working all day for overall leader Bauke Mollema, made the proper right-hand turn onto McLeod Avenue and entered the finishing circuits in second place on the road behind Hansen. He completed one full lap of the circuit and then was told to stop by race officials, who then awarded him with second place on the podium.
“There were three or four cars that passed me and just before I came to the turn, I saw one car break but then still continue,” Didier told reporters in the post-race press conference. “I didn’t know why but when I arrived I saw a flash for the right and I saw a marshal standing on the island, and he was also waving right, so I went to the right.
“I was dropped in the gravel, so I had no idea who was in the front. I came to the one-kilometre mark and the commissaire came to me and said that I had to go to the line and stop. When I got to the line… nobody really knew about all this because everyone was yelling at me, ‘hey, you need to do more laps.’”
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1EOERAu
No comments:
Post a Comment