The UCI announced Wednesday that it condemned the behaviour of Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) following a high-speed crash during the final sprint of stage 1 at the Tour de Pologne.
The crash caused half a dozen riders to go down including Dutch champion Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), who was airlifted to a specialist hospital in Sosnowiec in serious condition.
The severity of the incident prompted the sport’s international governing body to immediately refer the matter to the Disciplinary Commission with a request to impose sanction against Groenewegen.
"The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) strongly condemns the dangerous behaviour of rider Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Wisma), who sent Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-Quickstep) into the barriers a few metres from the finish, causing a collective crash at the end of the first stage of the Tour of Poland," the statement from the UCI read.
Groenewegen was disqualified from the race by the commissaires' panel and fined 500CHF.
"The UCI, which considers the behaviour unacceptable, immediately referred the matter to the Disciplinary Commission to request the imposition of sanctions commensurate with the seriousness of the facts," the press release stated.
"Our Federation is wholeheartedly with the affected riders."
The crash happened during the final metres of stage 1 at the Tour de Pologne where Groenewegen and Jakobsen were sprinting for the finish line in Katowice. Video footage shows Groenewegen deviated from his line toward the righthand side of the road and Jakobsen crashing through the road-side barriers.
Groenewegen barely crossed the line first while losing control of his bike, crashing after the line. Half a dozen riders also went down including Marc Sarreau (Groupama-FDJ), Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates), Damien Touze (Cofidis) and Eduard Prades (Movistar).
Jakobsen was immediately attended to by medical services on-site and subsequently airlifted hospital in a serious condition, as was a course-side official who was impacted by the crash.
Sarreau damaged ligaments in his shoulder in the incident and his team said he would not continue the race.
Jumbo-Visma have issued a statement following the crash, apologising for the incident, and confirming that they will address the matter internally before making any further public statements.
"Our thoughts go out to Fabio Jakobsen and other people involved in today’s terrible crash in the Tour of Poland. Crashes like these should not happen," Jumbo-Visma published to its social media channel.
"We offer our sincere apologies and we will discuss internally what has happened before we may make any further statement."
