Stage 11 of the Vuelta a España was full of drama both on and off the road. Ben O’Connor’s team faced penalties after Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale riders were found obstructing others, and were thought to have contributed to a crash of EF Education-EasyPost’s Richard Carapaz’s.
Victor Lafay, Cyril Dessel, Bruno Armirail, and Geoffrey Bouchard received yellow cards under the new UCI penalty system, similar to soccer’s approach. The international cycling body is trying the new system from August until December.
The crash in question
With 93 km to go, Carapaz fell but quickly remounted his bike, though TV coverage was blocked by a tree at the crucial moment. It’s hard to see exactly what happened–but presumably the race jury had a better view. Jonathan Vaughters of EF Education-EasyPost shared the footage on social media with the caption: “Well, that was pretty mean,” as Carapaz dropped to fourth in the GC.
O’Connor defended his team on X (formerly Twitter), stating, “We never tried to cause a crash, and never pushed someone off the road.”
Accidents happen in cycling. We all know that. It’s a rough sport. But this was not an accident: pic.twitter.com/0PorhVlASy
— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) August 28, 2024
He later deleted his account but not before criticizing the jury’s decision with the tweet: “Dear UCI, What kind of dangerous move do you think my teammates Bouchard, Lafay, and Armirail made that merited a yellow card? The road was blocked by us, like in every race after the breakaway leaves. We never tried to cause a crash, and never pushed someone off the road.”
Questioning jury’s decision
O’Connor also posted, “The yellow card is supposed to be implemented for dangerous riding. For example, if we are lined up at the front of the peloton, and a rider rides in the gravel off the road to get past, is this not causing danger?”
🤬 La acusación de Richard Carapaz en @Eurosport_ES contra el equipo de Ben O’Connor:
📌 “Está habiendo una falta de respeto muy grande”
📌 “Se ve mucha prepotencia, no he recibido nada más de ellos”#LaVuelta24 | #LaCasadelCiclismo pic.twitter.com/UoOAUxTJPS
— Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) August 29, 2024
Vaughters added, “Accidents happen in cycling; it’s a rough sport. But this was not an accident.”
A small reminder: obstructing another rider to prevent their movement is a violation of UCI rules.
While teams may want to control a breakaway, road…
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