Benjamin Noval’s win in the junior men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships on Thursday was the perfect example of controlled speed, but it seems his Spanish team sports director was less restrained.
As Noval rode solo to take his second rainbow jersey of the week, after also winning the junior time trial, Eleuterio Anguita was desperately trying to catch the 17-year-old prodigy in the Spanish team car. Too desperately, it seems.
Anguita was caught on a fan’s social media driving the Volkswagen team car at speed on the course. As it passed the camera the car even briefly took off after hitting a bump, landing on the tarmac with a scraping sound.
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The UCI’s regulations and guidelines governing vehicle drivers in road races are constantly being updated and place a number of restrictions on drivers in a race convoy. They must hold a licence permitting them to drive in UCI races, and are required to attend a safety briefing held before the race in question.
The regulations also require drivers to “drive in a prudent manner to safeguard the safety of riders in the race, spectators and other vehicles”.
Anguita was listed in the post-race communiqué as having breached Article 2.12.007.6.3, regulations or guidelines concerning vehicles movements during the race. He was fined CHF 1,000 and excluded “from the entire World Championships in Montreal, Canada.”
After a 10-year career as a professional racer, during which he won a stage of the Vuelta a España, Anguita was appointed as the Spanish junior men’s road cycling coach in January 2015.
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