After Alexey Tsatevich was fined £71 and given a 6 minutes and 48 seconds penalty on the GC for drafting Tobias Ludvigsson during the Giro d’Italia time trial, his team Katusha went a little further, opting to withdraw him from the race for his dishonorable riding. Cycling Weekly asked other team managers what they made of the decision.

“It was way too much,” Addy Engels, LottoNL-Jumbo sports director told Cycling Weekly. “I’m not upset that he’s home. It’s not the way we want to show the sport. We want to do it the fair way, and this is not part of fair play.”

“Speaking as an ex-cyclist, it bothers me when there’s another rider on my wheel in a time trial,” BMC Racing‘s team trainer, Marco Pinotti said. “The riders know what they are doing. When you are passed, you gain some slipstream, sometimes it’s impossible to avoid it, but to then stay there. I don’t think he was even there to try to win or make a good placing, maybe he was just trying to save strength.”

Astana trainer and sports director, Paolo Slongo added, “A rider who’s out there doing a time trial not for the win or for the classification, he should be calm because even if he arrives one minute later it doesn’t change anything.”

Tsatevich’s DS Dimitri Konyshev was visibly very angry with his rider, saying what the Russian did was disrespectful to Ludvigsson.

“I don’t want to swear… I don’t want to say what I’m thinking,” said Konyshev. “I was very upset to see this in TV. It was shameful. I became red with shame and wanted to bust the TV.  First that’s disrespectful to Ludvigsson. Tsatevich was there, hooked on this wheel, not letting go. A rider with some sense should know better.”