Rider has win taken away because the rest of the peloton went the wrong way

Ukrainian rider is the only one to go the right way at the Tour of Ukraine but a protest sees the result wiped out and a new 5km race is started

Riders before the restarted race (Photo: Twitter/@peloton.by)

You wait six years for a victory and then a mistake by the commissaires sees that hard earned success taken away.

Such was the ridiculous situation at the Tour of Ukraine on Wednesday when local rider Oleksander Sheydyk was the only rider to cross the line, after the rest of the peloton went the wrong way inside the final 20km.

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Rather than let the result stand, the commissaire offered to cancel the stage or to have a 5km lap to decide the placings. Many of the teams decided to ride the 5km, but Sherydyk's team boycotted the contest, along with several others.

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The commissaire reportedly said that there were no cars, volunteers or even signs to show the riders which way they should go to the finish line. Team Kuota tweeted that the rules state that the riders should know the way they are going, adding that they disagreed with the jury's decision to restart a shortened race.

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Siarhey Papok, the rider who eventually led the lost bunch over the line for 'second' place in the first race, took the win in the restart and also went on to win Thursday's stage in a sprint.

The organisers were in hot water again later that evening as one rider, Fabio Calabria, tweeted the UCI complaining of no hot water in the hotel and that some riders were turned away from dinner without food.

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Stuart Clarke is a News Associates trained journalist who has worked for the likes of the British Olympic Associate, British Rowing and the England and Wales Cricket Board, and of course Cycling Weekly. His work at Cycling Weekly has focused upon professional racing, following the World Tour races and its characters.