Nacer 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.