The UCI's new yellow card rule got a workout on stage 11 of La Vuelta a España, with seven handed out and the bulk of those going to the team of race leader Ben O’Connor.
Fines and four yellow cards went to Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s Victor Lafay, Bruno Armirail and Geoffrey Bouchard as well as Sports Director Cyril Dessel. Obstruction to prevent or delay the movement of another rider or vehicle was cited as the reason.
The decisions came after Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale used the not uncommonly employed tactic of spreading out across the road to try and stop the flow of riders to a large breakaway out the front as it was becoming more and more firmly established, presumably to try and prevent riders who could be overall threats from chasing too big a boost up the GC rankings.
Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) fell while trying to work his way around the team at the edge of the road, with differing views on the situation expressed on social media by EF Education-EasyPost's Jonathan Vaughters and – according to Wielerflits – in now-deleted posts by O'Connor.
It was, however, hard to determine whether or not it was a move by a Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider that caused Carapaz to fall or whether it was a consequence of the EF Education-EasyPost rider's position on the rough road edge as the footage of the fall was partially obscured by the position of a roadside tree.
The new 'yellow card' system began on August 1 and is being implemented without sanctions this year, but with increased punishment for repeat offenders expected to be on the rulebook from January 1, 2025.
When announcing the introduction of yellow cards the UCI said: “This initiative will have a dissuasive effect on anyone present in the race convoy (riders, Sport Directors, other drivers and motorbike riders, etc.) who might engage in behaviour that could jeopardise the safety of the event.”
The other three yellow cards handed down on stage 11 were to Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) for non-compliant positions on the bike and also a sports director at Astana-Qazaqstan for irregular assistance to a rider on his team. The total of seven yellow cards on Wednesday sits against just two across the first 10 stages of the race.
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