XDS-Astana rider Alessandro Romele has said it was "fair" that he received a yellow card for indirectly causing Luca Van Boven (Lotto-Intermarché) to crash on stage 7, and that Van Boven then abandoned the Vuelta a España the following day as a result of his injuries.
Some 20 kilometres from the finish on stage 7, Romele lost balance and closed off Van Boven on the right-hand side of the road, with the Belgian racer spinning over a pavement and falling heavily. Van Boven remounted his bike and completed the mountainous stage, ending with a summit finish at Aramón Valdelinares, but was later diagnosed with much more serious injuries than were initially thought, including two broken ribs and a collapsed lung.
Van Boven spent the night in hospital, and was confirmed by Lotto-Intermarché as a non-starter for stage 8. While Romele accepted responsibility for what had happened, the Lotto-Intermarché team management, talking to Sporza, said they did not blame Romele for the incident, saying "he does not have eyes in the back of his head."
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"It also wasn’t an ideal moment for him to pass, given that we were coming up to a right-hand turn, but I take the responsibility. I accept the card, it was fair I got it," Romele told a small group of reporters, including Cyclingnews, at the start.
"Like they say in F1, it was a racing incident, a moment in which the peloton was quite relaxed, and we were going quite slowly. I lost control of my bike a bit on a speed bump, and that caused me to veer to the right, just as Luca was coming up after taking on bottles for his teammates."
"I wrote a message to Luca straight after the stage just to clarify what happened. To tell the truth, I wanted to do it in person today at the bus, because I don’t really like sending messages, I'd have preferred to speak face to face. But that’s ok."
"I heard that Luca was going to hospital, so I got his number and I spoke to him, and he understood the situation and that it was an accident. He understood that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"We spoke and cleared the air, and I’m very happy about that because the most important thing is to clear things up between you as riders.
In terms of how the yellow card affects him for today's sprint, Romele said it was something that didn't help, but "yesterday was an episode that doesn't represent who I am. I'm at peace with myself."
"We'll definitely have to pay more attention because of the card, but we'll try to get through as best we can in the remainder of the race."
Lotto-Intermarché were more than prepared to put the incident behind them, saying Romele had expressed regret and concern immediately after the crash, even coming to the Lotto team car during the stage to check on Van Boven's condition.
"The Astana rider doesn't have eyes in the back of his head, he swerved just when the speed bump was there in the road. It was just a very unfortunate racing incident," Lotto sports director Mario Aerts told Sporza.be.
As for the crash itself, Aerts said "At first, he couldn't stand up properly. That doctor checked to see if anything was broken in his back.
"Luca did feel pain in his ribs, and then of course you know that it isn't good. According to the doctor, the choice was then up to Luca. He wanted to try it one more time and got on the bike anyway, even though it wasn't going easily."
For Lotto, the loss of a second rider in less than a week after Roel van Sintmaartensdijk abandoned on stage 5 - also, Lotto said, due to a manoeuvre that led to him crashing out, in the Dutch rider's case with an important knee injury.
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