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news
Nacer Bouhanni barges Jake Stewart.PNGNacer Bouhanni banned for two months after pushing Jake Stewart into barriers
Nacer Bouhanni has been handed a two-month ban following an incident at the Cholet-Pays de la Loire race in February in which the Arkéa-Samsic sprinter pushed Groupama-FDJ rider Jake Stewart into the crash barriers on the approach to the line.
Bouhanni had initially denied that his action was “intentional,” but in a statement released this evening, the UCI said that at a hearing held by its Disciplinary Committee last Thursday, the Frenchman “admitted to having deviated from his line and committed a violation of the UCI Regulations.
“The rider agreed to the imposition of a two-month suspension starting retroactively on 8 April 2021,” the UCI said.
“The suspension shall end on 7 June 2021. The rider also agreed to the imposition of educational measures for the benefit of the cycling family.”
The governing body said that it “is committed to continuing its work to make road cycling a safer sport for riders and reiterates that dangerous behaviour has no place in modern cycling.
“Therefore, the UCI reminds that any breach of the rules of safety or care shall be subject to disciplinary action,” it added.
The British rider was able to stay upright and avoided crashing, and accused Bouhanni of having “no respect” for the safety of fellow riders.
Yo @BouhanniNacer I would ask you what you was thinking...but you clearly have no brain cells. The ironic thing is, you told me I had 'no respect' after the finish. Here's an educational video of what 'no respect' looks like... 😶 https://t.co/nk5Bp6lE0V
— Jake (@jakey_stewart) March 28, 2021
The 21 year old from Coventry, who finished second in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in February, said in a tweet that Bouhanni had “no brain cells.”
In a response issued via his team, Bouhanni claimed that he hadn’t seen Stewart, but now appears to have accepted that he was at fault.
> UCI “strongly condemns” Nacer Bouhanni for pushing Jake Stewart into barriers
At the time, some social media users likened the incident to the one at last year’s Tour de Pologne that resulted in Deceuninck-Quick Step rider Fabio Jakobsen being placed in an induced coma after Dylan Groenewegen of Jumbo-Visma pushed him into crash barriers during a downhill sprint.
Groenewegen was handed a nine-month ban by the UCI Disciplinary Commission following the incident, which happened during a downhill sprint in the opening stage of the race last August.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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8 comments
Isn't this dude the one who think's he's boxer? Seems like he should make a career move (and hopefully get his head staved in)
Those aren't necessarily contradictory though - he could still be saying that he deviated without meaning to. In fact it sounds like it could well be a bit of a compromise, whereby the UCI gets to impose a sanction while avoiding a lengthy disciplinary wrangle, and Bouhanni avoids a longer ban (note that he's already 'served' more than half of it) and admitting to any more serious fault.
Fair ban.
However there was really quite vociferous outrage about the incident, which when placed alongside Dylan Groneweggen's taking out of Fabio Jakobsen and Peter Sagan's take out of Cavendish was sinister to say the least. Sagan remember elbowed Cav resulting in Cav crashing and breaking bones and for this indiscretion Sagan was merely ejected from that year's Tour de France. Yet you would be hard pushed to compare the coverage of Bouhanni - who isn't an angel by any means - and Sagan and come to the conclusion that there isn't some rather obvious bias. With the Groneweggen incident I did note at the time that many commentators were saying things like 'that doesn't look good', however with Bouhanni it was straight forward let's ban this guy - Cycling Tips and GCN being the main protagonists here. In the Cycling Tips broadcast one of the reasons given was that Bouhanni was a bit aloof and flash and therefore deserved what he got !!
Our reactions to these kinds of incidents can evolve over time though, as the reality of how dangerous pushing riders towards barriers at sprint speed becomes is.
Groenewegen could have lost his life in his crash, so when it appears even with that knowledge among riders, another rider appears to deliberately force a rider into a barrier in a sprint,and a sprint they werent going to win,yes the reaction to it will be greater than had Groenewegen simply ended up with a few bumps/collar bone injuries.
Edit - I meant Jakobsen not Groenewegen obviously
Point of order: Groenewegen was the offender in that case; it was Jakobsen on the receiving end.
Yes apologies I meant Jakobsen, not had enough morning coffee yet
I think you mean Jakobsen?
I don't know Bouhanni that well, but it depends on how "flash" is being shown on the course, and whether it encompasses persistently skirting the edges of the rules without far enough over the line to cause action to be taken.
By the same token, football referees will eventually give a player a yellow card for persistent, niggly fouls, none of which, by themselves, would deserve a yellow card.