Wang Xin, the rider who attacked two members of Swiss team after a sudden in-race incident, will now have to stay out of any cycling competition for two years.
The incident took place last month, during Tour of Hainan. It was considered to be an “irrational violence” for the Chinese Cycling Association.
It seems CCA took this incident very seriously punishing Xin’s team, their manager and also two other people, member of the team, for failing to control the rider.
Zero Tolerance for such behaviors from CCA
For two years, none of these team members will be able to work with a professional cycling team. The team will not be able to apply for a license in 2018 as well.
“The China Cycling Association has always been zero tolerance of the venue violations and violent incidents,” said an official statement on the CCA’s website.
“The Association requires all domestic and foreign convoys, bicycle teams from all provinces and cities across the country, teams and individuals who participate in various amateur competitions to strictly abide by discipline rules and maintain a good style of racing so as to prevent such incidents from happening again.”
It seems the attack stemmed from an incident that happened on stage 7 when the commissaries decided to allow teams to do some in-race feeding of the cyclists. Apparently, it was the Swiss car’s which was travelling in left side of the pack when Wang was crashed.
Even though it seemed the car had bumped Wang, the Swiss team manager claimed that the reality is completely different. According to them, the Chinese ride touched wheels with another rider located ahead of him that made him crash.
“We went slow and stopped on the left side to let the rider pass,” explained Swiss coach and former rider Danilo Hondo. “All of the riders had no problems, just this Chinese rider – he was one of the last in the peloton. You can see on Eurosport, that we stopped and the rider passed us. But then he fell over the back wheel of a rider in front of us.
“We had a journalist in our car, and she worked for the Tour of Hainan as well. She has confirmed to us several times that the rider did a mistake by himself.”