Bardiani’s Francesco Bongiorno was deprived of the chance to win on one of the world’s most famous climbs when a fan pushed him and this led to him crashing an agonising 2.8km from the line.

“I felt that person, it wasn’t just a push to help me, but a big push and I hit Michael [Rogers]. I had to stop on the hardest section, to stop and restart on a 20 per cent gradient. It’s terrible,” team Bardiani-CSF’s Bongiorno told Cycling Weekly. “He pushed me and stopped me, but the least he could’ve done was to help me get going again. That’s the problem!”

His manager Roberto Reverberi said:“I heard it on the radio when it happened, I didn’t see it, but I just saw the video replay. There’s about 100,000 fans out there, but there’s always one idiot in a crowd that size. Unfortunately, it happens.”

Bongiorno was quick to point out that he may not have been able even then to beat Michael Rogers, who impressively won atop the feared mountain.

“We’ll never know if that was the reason I couldn’t win,” said Bongiorno, “but for sure, I couldn’t challenge for it like I wanted to.”

“I wouldn’t say there are too many fans out there. The fans give us energy, but they need to reflect on this incident, give us more space and respect,” Bongiorno said. “It’s right that they have a party, it’s an honour for us to be here with such a turn out, but they need to understand that we are not joking in that moment.”