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Stickiest of 'sticky bottles' gets Romain Bardet kicked out of Paris-NiceRomain Bardet sticky bottle Paris-Nice 2017.PNG

Stickiest of 'sticky bottles' gets Romain Bardet kicked out of Paris-Nice

AG2R-La Mondiale's Tour de France runner-up was unlucky enough to be caught on camera pulling typical pro trick...
by Simon_MacMichael
Mon, Mar 06, 2017 02:40
12

Romain Bardet, the AG2R-La Mondiale rider who finished second overall in last year's Tour de France, was kicked off Paris-Nice yesterday after accepting the stickiest of stick bottles during the opening stage of the week-long race.

The 26-year-old was caught on camera holding onto his team car, and apologised afterwards for breaking the rules.

Bardet, who had crashed with 22 kilometres remaining of the stage, took to Twitter to excuse himself, saying that "nothing justifies the prolonged help from a team car" - although that hadn't stopped him from benefiting himself from a practice he acknowledged is widespread in the peloton.

While Bardet is far from the first pro to take a tow from a team car, such incidents rarely make the headlines and when they do, tend to be because the rider involved is vying for the overall win - as happened when Vincenzo Nibali, fresh from winning the Tour de France, was thrown out of the Vuelta in 2014.

> Video: Vincenzo Nibali thrown off Vuelta after being towed by team car

 

Romain Bardet
sticky bottle
Simon MacMichael

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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12 comments

Avatar
RTB | 7 years ago
0 likes

This is extreme 'mechanical doping' and I don't see any difference to stuffing a motor in the seat tube.  Do latter and you would get a ban of months/years.  Do former as Bardet and Nibali did (and I suspect Demare also did (without condemning footage) to get back in the front group and win the 2016 Milan–San Remo) and you just/may get thrown off the race with nothing more.

Avatar
Butty | 7 years ago
1 like

He got such a big launch at 1:05 that he barely made it around the roundabout.

Several of those turbo boosts led to his demise. 

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BikingBud | 7 years ago
0 likes

I saw it form the start of the clip and went to do something else.  I expected that to be him out of the race, as so many others appeared to be so soon, and when I came back saw he was just jumping the last few drafts to get back in.  

 

I was most surprised and now I can see why.

Avatar
davel | 7 years ago
3 likes

Still, at least he held his hands up, when he'd released them from the car; contrast with Nibali's strop.

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mrchrispy | 7 years ago
0 likes

That Nibali footage is hilarious, the way he get dragged away from the front of the group, you can just feel that collectivly thinking....wtf

Avatar
SingleSpeed | 7 years ago
0 likes

The worst I ever saw was a Garmin rider blatantly holding onto the back window of a car getting towed up a Mamhead in the 2012? Tour Of Britain.

Ironically he also seemed to receive the largest cheer from the crowd.

Avatar
Alessandro | 7 years ago
1 like

If that's the only footage then this seems incredibly harsh. The 'tow' was nothing like Nibali's and it looked as though there was a mechanic tending to his bike which is hardly surprising given the earlier crash. 

Avatar
brackley88 replied to Alessandro | 7 years ago
3 likes
AST1986 wrote:

If that's the only footage then this seems incredibly harsh. The 'tow' was nothing like Nibali's and it looked as though there was a mechanic tending to his bike which is hardly surprising given the earlier crash. 

 

It wasn't the only footage. It went on for ages. They were 'fiddling' with his mech at speed for at least two sustained periods, and then decided you use some spray lube, again at speed.

And they had him drafting a few inches behind the rear bumper....all the way back to the main group. I would guess I saw clips of him being aided for at least 10 mins...and certainly long enough to go from being way off the group to being in it. 

Avatar
Alessandro replied to brackley88 | 7 years ago
1 like
brackley88 wrote:
AST1986 wrote:

If that's the only footage then this seems incredibly harsh. The 'tow' was nothing like Nibali's and it looked as though there was a mechanic tending to his bike which is hardly surprising given the earlier crash. 

 

It wasn't the only footage. It went on for ages. They were 'fiddling' with his mech at speed for at least two sustained periods, and then decided you use some spray lube, again at speed.

And they had him drafting a few inches behind the rear bumper....all the way back to the main group. I would guess I saw clips of him being aided for at least 10 mins...and certainly long enough to go from being way off the group to being in it. 

Fair enough and credit must therefore go to the commissaires for strong and decisive action. 

Avatar
brackley88 replied to Alessandro | 7 years ago
1 like
AST1986 wrote:
brackley88 wrote:
AST1986 wrote:

If that's the only footage then this seems incredibly harsh. The 'tow' was nothing like Nibali's and it looked as though there was a mechanic tending to his bike which is hardly surprising given the earlier crash. 

 

It wasn't the only footage. It went on for ages. They were 'fiddling' with his mech at speed for at least two sustained periods, and then decided you use some spray lube, again at speed.

And they had him drafting a few inches behind the rear bumper....all the way back to the main group. I would guess I saw clips of him being aided for at least 10 mins...and certainly long enough to go from being way off the group to being in it. 

Fair enough and credit must therefore go to the commissaires for strong and decisive action. 

 

you are right though about Nibalis...that was much funnier...this one looked just old skool...

 

Avatar
Grinman77 replied to brackley88 | 7 years ago
1 like
brackley88 wrote:
AST1986 wrote:

If that's the only footage then this seems incredibly harsh. The 'tow' was nothing like Nibali's and it looked as though there was a mechanic tending to his bike which is hardly surprising given the earlier crash. 

 

It wasn't the only footage. It went on for ages. They were 'fiddling' with his mech at speed for at least two sustained periods, and then decided you use some spray lube, again at speed.

And they had him drafting a few inches behind the rear bumper....all the way back to the main group. I would guess I saw clips of him being aided for at least 10 mins...and certainly long enough to go from being way off the group to being in it. 

Also, it wasn't the bike he crashed on. So shouldn't have really needed lots of fiddling. Nobody likes to see someone out of a race because of a crash though.

Avatar
MandaiMetric replied to Grinman77 | 7 years ago
0 likes
Grinman77 wrote:

Also, it wasn't the bike he crashed on. So shouldn't have really needed lots of fiddling.

Seems spare bikes from the team car always "need" a bit of tinkering after a switch. Mostly the referees exercise some discretion, but I guess if you're considered a main protagonist for the race, and the assistance is beyond their discretion, then the result is expulsion.

Unless of course you can argue you were just steadying yourself on the way up Ventoux.

 

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