Richie Porte‘s (Team Sky) Giro d’Italia hopes took a setback in the closing kilometres of stage 10 when a puncture caused him to be left behind by the peloton.
Despite the efforts of his teammates he crossed the line 47 seconds in arrears to pink jersey wearer Alberto Contador, falling to fourth overall at 1m09s.
However, this wasn’t the whole story: it later transpired that it was fellow Australian Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) who had given Porte his wheel to get him back in contention.
At first, this was seen simply as a great stroke of sportsmanship with the Giro tweeting its approval:
This is cycling.
This is the best sport in the world.#Giro pic.twitter.com/gK4C4YfSg9— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 19, 2015
But the social media mood later changed when news broke that both Porte and Clarke had been given a two minute time penalty for ‘non-regulation assistance’.
David Millar wasn’t backward in coming forward with his take on the situation:
Today @SimoClarke shows not only sportsmanship but friendship in helping @richie_porte out when he needed it. That is cycling to me…
— David Millar (@millarmind) May 19, 2015
Shame @UCI_cycling continue to show how incredibly out of touch they are with the modern peloton. Stupid is as stupid does.
— David Millar (@millarmind) May 19, 2015
Time for @BrianCooksonUCI to show some leadership that the fans of cycling want and need from him.
— David Millar (@millarmind) May 19, 2015
Cannondale-Garmin’s team manager Jonathan Vaughters was a bit more vague, but seemingly just as miffed:
How do you say "bullshit" in Italian?
— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) May 19, 2015
Oldest Grand Tour winner Chris Horner shared his thoughts:
GC shouldn't be decided by this kind of rule. Flat tire alone in critical moment is penalty enough! @richie_porte @giroditalia
— Chris Horner (@hornerakg) May 19, 2015
Doctor Hutch speculated about where Leopold Konig might be sleeping tonight after the penalty took Porte below him on GC:
The big question… does @LeopoldKonig now get the motorhome? https://t.co/quAr4wmiPW
— Michael Hutchinson (@Doctor_Hutch) May 19, 2015
Whereas others looked beyond the black and white of the rulebook, to discuss the actual impact of the assistance given:
Re Porte – all kinds of inter-team alliances go on all the time. Should the question not have been: did he gain an unfair advantage? #giro
— Richard Moore (@richardmoore73) May 19, 2015
Chris Boardman added his two penneth:
What a desperately bad decision by judges at Giro. Really foolish to penalise friendship & goodwill, exactly what we need to see more of
— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) May 19, 2015
While Neal Rogers had a devilish idea as to how Porte could get the time back:
Contador and Aru could effectively overturn UCI jury decision at finish line tomorrow. Not saying they will, or should, but… they could.
— Neal Rogers (@nealrogers) May 19, 2015
Tom Dumoulin summed up it all up quite well:
I hope this is fine is a belated Aprils fools joke???
— Tom Dumoulin (@tom_dumoulin) May 19, 2015
What do you think about it?
