Watch video as Dani Navarro hitches a ride at the Vuelta a Asturias

Daniel Navarro hitched a ride late in Sunday’s final stage at the Vuelta a Asturias in northern Spain and was not sanctioned for a blatant “sticky bottle.”

A fan captured a video of the Burgos-BH rider being pulled up a climb in the closing kilometers of the final climb.

Navarro is seen hanging onto the team car as he pulled up the steep, passing several struggling riders as he is pushed toward the finish line.

@vueltasturias @UCI_cycling que os parece que el corredor Dani Navarro del @BurgosBH suba hoy remolcado la cota a 2 de meta para acabar en la 21ª posicion? Imagino que se le podrá sancionar o descalificar por esto pic.twitter.com/caw15Sm4Dk

— Zuhaitz Elejalde (@zuhaitze) May 1, 2022

There was no official sanction or disqualification, and Navarro finished 21st on the stage, taking 12th overall in the three-day stage race won by Iván Sosa (Movistar).

Team officials told the Spanish daily MARCA that team mechanics were trying to fix Navarro’s derailleur following a crash that left the team captain’s freewheel stuck in the 11-cog going into the final ramps of the climb.

Riders taking long pulls from team cars via a “sticky bottle” can be fined, relegated, or even kicked out of the race. The race jury will sometimes turn a blind eye early in a race when a rider is chasing back from collecting water bottles, but the most blatant cases are typically spotted and cited.

In 2015, Vincenzo Nibali was kicked out of that year’s Vuelta a España after he was caught taking a long tow from a team car after coming back from a crash.

Elisa Balsamo was also recently expelled from Paris-Roubaix Femmes after the race jury judged she had been towed too far when collecting a bottle from the team car as she chased back on after a puncture.