WiV-SunGod rider Ben Perry is the new leader of the Tour of Britain following stage 3 after UCI commissaires amended the stage’s time gaps several hours after the race.
Having previously been second and on the same time overall as Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech), he leads the New Zealander by seven seconds in the updated general classification.
The Canadian rider finished second to Kamiel Bonneu (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) after spending the stage between Durham and Sunderland in a four-rider breakaway. Having started the day 14 seconds down on leader Strong, Perry gained eight bonus seconds in three intermediate sprints and six for his second-place finish to draw level on time.
Strong finished in the peloton, which had previously been judged to have finished on the same time as Bonneu as they chased the leaders down into the finishing straight.
“Following a review of the ‘Implementation Protocol of the calculation of time gaps expected to finish in bunch sprints’, the stage result has been amended,” the UCI commissaire president Marco Zivanovic said in a statement.
The ruling relates to UCI regulation 2.3.040, which states “All riders in a given bunch shall be credited with the same time when they cross the finishing line.”
The statement from the UCI commissaires’ panel indicates that ruling 2.3.040 only applies to the main peloton in the following manner:
-If the first rider of the peloton is less than one second behind the rider/group finishing ahead, the peloton is given the same time as the rider/group finishing ahead.
-If the first rider of the peloton is more than one second behind the rider/group finishing ahead, the peloton is given a new time.
So, in layman’s terms, the gap between break and bunch exceeded one second and the officials changed accordingly and belatedly.
In the updated stage results, Perry is on the same time as Bonneu, with third-placed Alex Richardson two seconds down, fourth-placed Mathijs Paaschens at four seconds and Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) leading in the bunch at seven seconds.
28-year-old Perry, racing for the British UCI Continental squad, will wear the leader’s red jersey on the 149.5km stage 4 of the race between Redcar and Helmsley.
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