Controversy during Volta a Catalunya’s team time-trial
There was controversy on stage two of the Volta a Catalunya as Movistar claimed victory despite a penalty for pushing during the team time trial.
The Spanish team completed the 41.3 kilometre course from Pla de l'Estany to Banyoles in 48 minutes and 55 seconds, two seconds clear of BMC Racing and almost a minute ahead of Team Sky in third.
But television pictures clearly showed Movistar's Nelson Oliveira giving team-mate Jose Rojas - who was in line to take the overall lead in the race - a shove during the stage, prompting other teams to complain.
Rules state that under such circumstances each member of the team should have one minute added to their
time, but instead commissaires chose to add a minute to Oliveira's time and three to Rojas' time, while keeping Movistar as winners of the stage.
The overall lead passed to Rojas' Spanish team-mate Alejandro Valverde, rather than BMC's Ben Hermans who might have expected it to come to him.
A post on the official Volta a Catalunya Twitter feed read: "Three minutes penalty for jjrojillas for pushing a teammate. alejanvalverde, new leader"
For Team Sky, third place in a time of 49 minutes and 41 seconds keeps Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Mikel Landa in contention for the general classification, and was a significant improvement on their last team time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico, where a series of wheel failures cost them almost two minutes and ended Thomas' GC bid before it had truly begun.
"We are not super happy to have lost 46 seconds, but let's see what happens," said Team Sky sport director Nicolas Portal on the team's website. "Tomorrow we have got a hard mountain stage and we have got a strong team with Froomey and G (Thomas).
"G was super strong today so let's hope we can bring back some time tomorrow. We've also got another summit finish later in the week."
Wednesday's stage runs over 188.3km from Mataro to a mountain finish at La Molina.