The race jury disqualified Visma-Lease a Bike rider Axel Zingle from the E3 Saxo Classic after the Frenchman held onto a team car to get back into the peloton following a puncture.
The punishment came after a Belgian cycling fan with the handle Lv_Cycling posted a video taken from the roadside to X that showed Zingle in the midst of holding onto either the team car (towing) or a bidon held by its driver (sticky bottle) for the entire five-second clip, if not longer.
While it is unclear what Zingle was holding onto from the video, his punishment suggested he was getting a tow.
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The UCI has two rules that could apply in the incident: a fine and a possible yellow card for a sticky bottle - holding on for a few seconds - and a harsher punishment for towing.
Zingle appears to have been sanctioned under rule 2.12.007 part 4.6, for holding on to a team vehicle. Violations result in a CHF 500 fine, removal of 100 points from the rider's UCI rankings and disqualification or elimination from the race. It can also come with a yellow card.
Zingle could also have been disqualified if he had received two yellow cards in the same race. In that case, he would also receive a seven-day suspension, and be at risk of a 14-day ban if he were to get a third yellow card within 30 days.
While sticky bottles and towing have long been part of cycling, they rarely make it onto the television coverage since they happen in the convoy behind the race. Since the advent of social media, videos of tows either taken by fans or on television have caused outrage among cycling fans.
In 2015, a video of Vincenzo Nibali being towed by his Astana team car during the Vuelta a España made its way to the race jury and, after a long debate, they ejected Italian from the race along with his sports director, Alexandre Shefer. Nibali got so much abuse on social media that he suspended his social media accounts.
More recently, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) was given a fine and docked UCI and mountains classification points for taking three sticky bottles while climbing the Col du Glandon during the 2025 Tour de France. He also had to withstand social media backlash. The Frenchman apologised and insisted he had no intent to cheat.
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