Paulinho abandons Vuelta a Espana after being hit by moto

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Just four days after Peter Sagan was hit by a motorbike at the Vuelta a España, the same fate has befallen another Tinkoff-Saxo rider in Sergio Paulinho. 

The Portuguese rider was knocked down by a TV moto and later forced to abandon the race part way through stage 11, requiring 17 stitches to his left leg.

Before the stage started and before Paulinho suffered his accident, Tinkoff-Saxo penned an open letter to Unipublic, the Vuelta organisers, and the UCI, cycling's governing body, demanding that measures be taken to increase rider safety in relation to race vehicles. It is an issue that has come to the boil recently with a number of unfortunate incidents, and Tinkoff-Saxo's letter followed a similar one from BMC general manager Jim Ochowicz addressed to the UCI. 

Tinkoff-Saxo owner Oleg Tinkov was forthright on Twitter in expressing his dismay at seeing another of his riders taken out of the race by a motorised vehicle.