While everybody is keeping a close eye on the Tour de France, scrutinizing every single detail and interpreting any fragment of a quote from one of the main favourites, tension has been brewing in the Tour of Austria.

On Thursday the final verdict ultimately fell at 10:37 precisely in a dispute involving IAM riders Matthias Brändle and IAM Sports Director Eddy Seigneur.  Milan Drorscik, the president of the jury of the UCI commissioners at the Tour of Austria, officially excluded Matthias Brändle and his directeur sportif Eddy Seigneur on the grounds that they had violated paragraph 18 of article 12.1.040 of the UCI regulations.  According to the testimony given by the jury commissioners, Matthias Brändle must have held onto the team car driven by Eddy Seigneur on a high-speed descent of the Grossglockner Pass. 

The IAM team has reacted strongly to the exclusion of the Sports Director and one of their riders.

“This statement [verdict] however is devoid of any foundation, firstly because the layout of the road would not have allowed any such action, and secondly because the IAM Cycling team car driven by Seigneur was actually behind the grupetto,” an official IAM press release said. “This morning [Thursday], just before the 11 am start at St-Johann in Pongnau, Eddy Seigneur and Matthias Brändle, accompanied by Marcello Albasini, gave their version of the events.  Spontaneously Dirk Demol, sporting director for RadioShack-Leopard, Yaroslav Popovych, RadioShack-Leopard rider, and the sports director of Team Gourmetfein Simplon all testified in favour of the two IAM Cycling team members. Their efforts were in vain, however, since the president of the jury commissioners did not want to go against the judgment of his colleagues. Cut deeply by this penalty, Eddy Seigneur is determined to prove the good faith of his rider as well as himself. “I am not going to let this drop. The jury has punished the innocent. I find this completely unfair, and it does not display a good image for professional cycling. I can unreservedly affirm that I did not help Matthias Brändle on the Grossglockner descent since I was behind the grupetto where there were other IAM Cycling members.” 

Displaying a poise and dignity in spite of his disqualification, Matthias Brändle has offered his explanation for the alleged offense: “I am at peace with my conscience. I never held onto a team car on the ascent much less the descent. I was never in the grupetto either. Rather, I was in a break that was initiated before the start of the Grossglockner Pass, but Popovych and the others caught up to me just before the summit. Then I stayed with them. It is therefore normal that the transponder would show that I went two minutes slower than the Popovych group.””

The UCI has so far chosen not to comment on the explanations provided by Brändle and Seigneur or the testimonies given by Sports Directors or riders from other teams.