As if crashing twice on the run-in to Alpe d’Huez to surrender a golden shot at a Tour de France stage win wasn’t enough, Sepp Kuss saw insult added to injury after stage 20 as he was hit with a severe punishment by the race officials.
The US climber was fined for littering, committing two infractions of the same offence on the same day.
He was fined a total of 1,500 Swiss Francs, as well as being docked 75 UCI points and one minute on the general classification of this Tour de France.
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Kuss fell foul of Article 1.12.007-8.3 of the UCI’s regulations, which covers: “Rider or team staff disposing of waste or other objects outside of litter zones, or not returned to team or organisation staff, not collected by team staff, thrown at a spectator.”
The jury report for stage 20 shows two separate infringements under that offence. The first carries a fine of 500CHF and a 25-point penalty in the UCI rankings. The second infringement carries a separate, escalated punishment, with a fine of 1000CHF, a further 75 UCI points, and, newly, a GC time loss of 60 seconds.
The penalty didn’t hurt Kuss’ final standing at this Tour de France, which he is set to finish in 13th place after his near miss atop Alpe d’Huez on stage 20 still moved him up from 15th place. The UCI points affect the team as well, in terms of the UCI’s teams ranking, but not to any significant degree.
After an aggressive ride with attacks on the Col de Sarenne climb to give him a solo lead with under 20km to race, he crashed twice on descents into the final 7km, and managed to salvage third place. He was awarded the most combative rider prize for his efforts.
The fine, meanwhile, will certainly, hit Kuss pretty hard in the wallet. Add that to an unfortunate loss of a crown on his front tooth in the second week of racing. That will cost as well.
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