Giro d'Italia: 'If they want trouble, they have it with finishes like this' say Deceuninck
Elia Viviani clearly didn't want to say something he might later regret. The Italian champion had spent long minutes in the video commissaire's truck at the finish line in Orbetello, reviewing footage of the closing metres of stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia as though it were the Zapruder film. Now, after trying and failing to overturn the decision to strip him of stage victory, Viviani was of little mind to make his case all over again for the assembled television cameras.
Instead, Viviani walked silently to his bike and pedalled slowly towards his Deceuninck-Quick Step bus, parked a mile away on the seafront. Another scrum of reporters was waiting for him when he skidded to a halt there, but the 30-year-old evaded them by dismounting from his bike and climbing up the stairs in one deft motion.
It was a manoeuvre of a different kind that saw Viviani relegated from first place to the back of the bunch. Viviani was tucked in behind stage 2 winner Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) when the sprint began before moving to his left to come around the German with 75 metres to go. That motion brought him into the path of Matteo Moschetti, however, and the race jury decreed that this deviation had impeded the Trek-Segafredo rider, with the stage win instead awarded to a surprised Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates).
Read more:
- Gaviria wins Giro d'Italia stage 3 as Viviani relegated in sprint
- Gaviria says Viviani deserved to win Giro d'Italia stage 3
- Viviani relegated in Giro d'Italia stage 3 sprint
- Trek-Segafredo DS regrets Moschetti's lost opportunity in Giro d'Italia
- Gaviria takes Giro stage 3 win after Viviani gets relegated – Video
Peter Sagan's ejection from the 2017 Tour de France convinced the UCI to introduce a video commissaire in the Grand Tours and Monuments last season. Bruno Valčić is the man in the video truck on this year's Giro, but while Deceuninck-Quick Step directeur sportif Rick Van Slycke saw the same footage of the sprint finish as the Croatian, he interpreted the images altogether differently.
"Look yourself to the sprint and you will see," Van Slycke said. "He came out of the wheel of Ackermann and he took the left side. He didn't see Moschetti and Moschetti was behind him. Then Elia takes his line and now they disqualify him.
"If they disqualify for this, then they will have a lot of work to do in the next sprints, I think. But we will see. They have to decide, and we have to wait."
Trouble
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