Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) was fined 500 Swiss Francs and docked 15 UCI points for resting his forearms on his handlebars in the finale of stage 5 of the Vuelta a San Juan to Alto Colorado.
Per UCI regulations, the sanction for “using a non-compliant position or point of support on the bicycle” can include disqualification, with Marianne Vos a high-profile victim of that rule at Postnord Vårgårda last year.
Ganna has not been disqualified from the Vuelta a San Juan, and as the offence does not carry a time penalty, he remains second overall, 30 seconds behind race leader Miguel Ángel López (Medellín-EPM).
“Following yesterday’s stage, the UCI made me aware that I had ridden in an illegal position by resting my forearms on the handlebars,” Ganna wrote in a post on social media.
“During that moment of the race I was really pushing my limits and momentarily lost concentration. I accept the penalty given by the UCI Commissaire, and as ever I respect that we must all abide by the UCI regulations.”
Ganna is on course to finish on the podium of the Vuelta a San Juan for the second time after his impressive display on the pivotal mountaintop finish at Alto Colorado on Friday. He was the strongest of the chasers behind the rampant López, coming home 30 seconds down in second place.
While Ganna is on course to repeat his second-place finish of 2020, there was disappointment for his Ineos teammate Egan Bernal, who was forced to abandon the Vuelta a San Juan in the opening kilometres of stage 6, citing knee pain sustained in a crash on the opening day.
Bernal had himself performed strongly on the Alto Colorado, coming home in fourth place to secure his best result since his life-threatening training crash in January of last year.
