BMC Racing plan legal action over Greg van Avermaet crash
Last Updated: 02/08/15 2:47pm
BMC Racing are planning to take legal action after one of their riders was hit by a race motorbike at Saturday’s Clasica San Sebastian in Spain.
Greg van Avermaet was leading solo following an attack on the day’s final climb when he was crashed into from behind.
Britain’s Adam Yates launched a subsequent attack and went on to take victory, but BMC Racing were furious about the incident and have accused both the race organisers and International Cycling Union (UCI) of negligence.
In a statement, team general manager Jim Ochowicz said: "Greg was robbed and the BMC Racing Team was robbed when this happened. I am appalled that this could occur in a WorldTour race.
"This is the second time this year we have had an incident with a local organiser of a WorldTour race where they have acted in a scandalous fashion. The UCI has been nowhere in this to resolve the problem.
“This comes back to safety issues in races where the local organiser of WorldTour events and the UCI are negligent in providing a safe racing environment.
"This was not a sporting incident. This was caused by pure negligence, which cost the team millions of dollars in lost publicity. Therefore, we plan to explore every legal option available to us."
Van Avermaet was unhurt in the crash but did not finish the race.
