Filippo Ganna disqualified at Tour de la Provence for illegal bike change
Italian disqualified for breaking bike-change rules on the final stage.
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Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) was disqualified on the final stage of the Tour de la Provence for an illegal bike change. The Italian and his British WorldTour team has yet to respond.
The final stage and the overall title were won by Nairo Quintana (Arkéa Samsic) but Ineos Grenadiers went into the key mountain stage without Richard Carapaz after the Olympic road champion was forced out of the race due to a positive COVID-19 test announced on Saturday.
Ganna and Ineos had enjoyed a spectacular start to the race with the Italian winning the prologue and taking the overall lead. Teammate Elia Viviani then won stage 1 and Ganna went into the final stage to Montagne de Lure in the lead but will little hope of realistically challenging the pure climbers.
It had initially looked as though Ganna had hung on for a top-ten overall placing – a fine result given the punishing final slopes of the last climb, and the opposition in the main field. However, the results were soon altered with news of his disqualification filtering out through social media.
The issue that stemmed from Ganna’s disqualification seemed to stem from how he took a new bike during the race.
Equipment changes of this nature are of course allowed mid-race, and riders often take lighter or ‘new’ bikes just before key points in races. However, in order to abide by the rules, all bike changes must be carried out by the team cars at the back of the race. It appears that Ganna moved off the front of the bunch before switching bikes at the side of the road, and at a point that was already decided by his team.
More to follow…
