Vincenzo Nibali apologises for Vuelta a Espana expulsion
Monday 24 August 2015 13:14, UK
Vincenzo Nibali has apologised for the incident that led to him being expelled from the Vuelta a Espana, but he insisted he is not the first rider to commit the offence of hanging on to his team car.
Nibali, the 2010 winner, was thrown out of the Vuelta for receiving a tow from his Astana car for about 200m of Sunday's second stage as he looked to catch back up to the peloton following a crash.
Nibali wrote on Facebook: "I want to publicly apologise for what happened, especially for the people who feel they are angry or ashamed of me.
"There are lots of episodes like this in cycling and especially so after a crash. I thought I'd get a fine and time penalty that would take me out of the overall classification.
"I'd have even accepted a 10-minute penalty. After all, I won't be the first or last to do this kind of thing."
Astana sports director Alexandre Shefer was also expelled from the race over the incident.
In a statement, the Kazakh team said: "Nibali called for a replacement water bottle and was filmed by television cameras in a race helicopter as Astana Pro Team director sportif Alexandre Shefer towed him for more than five seconds to rejoin the chasing group with around 20km to the finish. Nibali rejoined the main peloton with 10km to go.
"For this illegal assistance, race jury officials took the unusual and severe step to expel Nibali and Sheffer from the Vuelta a Espana and to remove the team's second vehicle from competition for two days.
"Astana Pro Team is sorry for the error, and apologises to the peloton and race organisers for the harm these televised images caused to professional cycling."
