The run into the dash was ramping as much as full pace on Thursday’s stage 1 of the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas when, with simply 150m to go, Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Staff ADQ) and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) got here down arduous into the limitations. When that occurred Lucinda Model’s (Lidl-Trek) first intuition was an comprehensible one – to cease and see what she might do to assist her clearly damage teammate.
Balsamo was on the bottom after she was knocked straight into the barrier at excessive pace and, whereas officers and medical workers have been nonetheless dashing towards the injured riders, Model was already by her Italian teammate’s aspect. It was later revealed that Balsamo suffered a concussion, a fracture to her nasal bone and second metacarpal.
“As we speak I adopted my human intuition and never my racing intuition,” stated Model in a put up on social media. “I finished to test on my teammate after a nasty crash simply meters from the end.
“I did not assume twice about doing it and I do not remorse it however, doing the best factor, misplaced me three minutes even with the road in view.”
Lotta Henttala (EF Training-Cannondale) went on to win the dash and 60 riders got the identical time, together with Balsamo and Bertizzolo who could not end after their crash 150m from the road however got the time of the winner because of the three-kilometre rule.
The related regulation – merchandise 2.6.027 of the UCI guidelines doc Half II Highway Races – outlines that: “Within the case of a duly famous incident within the final three kilometres of a highway race stage, the rider or riders affected shall be credited with the time of the rider or riders in whose firm they have been using in the mean time of the incident. His or their putting shall be decided by the order through which he or they really cross the ending line.”
It additionally provides that an incident is “any occasion impartial from the bodily capability of the rider (fall, mechanical downside, puncture) and his will of remaining with the riders in whose firm he was using in the mean time of the incident.”
The rule was not utilized to Model who was not a part of the accident however stopped in response to it. She was on the outcomes with a 3:03 deficit, sufficient to, until one thing drastic occurs, put the in-form rider utterly out of rivalry for the highest GC spots within the four-day Ladies’s WorldTour stage race.
“If Barzi [Balsamo] had been capable of end, she would have gotten the identical time because the group so why ought to caring for others in that second be handled any totally different within the eyes of [the UCI],” Model requested.
