Giro stage 3 fines and time penalties: De Vries, Campenaerts and others receive warnings

Welcome to the IDL Pro Cycling fines, penalties and jury notices page — planes, trains and automobiles was taken! We will be monitoring the Giro d'Italia race jury report from the official organisation throughout the entire race. The report details the penalties handed out each day — in the form of time deductions and/or points in the Giro's classifications and/or on the UCI ranking. Any important information for riders and teams issued in the jury report will be shared here.

In the third stage, there were finally no crashes, and so we concluded the three-day race in Bulgaria with a classic bunch sprint through the streets of Sofia. Was this a reason for the jury to take it easy? No, as the jury report revealed.

Just like the day before, the organisers spotted a rider briefly removing his helmet during the race. The action by Hartthijs de Vries of the Unibet Rose Rockets was noticed and, just like Kaden Groves on Saturday, the Dutchman was also given a warning.

As this had happened two days in a row, the jury wrote in the report: ‘Wearing a helmet during the competition is mandatory. If you need to take off your helmet for any reason, you must stop at the side of the road.’

In addition to warnings, fines were also handed out to riders who urinated whilst the neutralisation was still in progress and therefore in full view of the public. Max Walscheid (Lidl-Trek) and Victor Campenaerts (Visma | Lease a Bike) were fined 200 Swiss francs. Rasmus Pedersen (Decathlon) urinated at the wrong moment whilst on the road and received the same penalty.

Stage 2 was, of course, defined above all by the mass crash in the finale — but the race jury also spotted infringements elsewhere in the stage. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Premier Tech) received a warning after briefly removing his helmet during the race.

Christian Scaroni may have seen his penalty coming — but that doesn't make it any less harsh. The Italian celebrated when he saw his teammate Guillermo Thomas Silva win the stage from a reduced sprint, having just delivered his lead-out. Celebrating a teammate's victory is no longer permitted under UCI rules and earns an automatic yellow card. A second yellow card means disqualification.

Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Oliver Naesen (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Dries Van Gestel (Soudal Quick-Step) were also handed fines. All three were caught relieving themselves in view of spectators — each carrying a 200 Swiss franc penalty under the heading of "Inappropriate behaviour."

The jury report also addressed the criticism from, among others, Jasper Stuyven regarding the neutralisation following the crash. Stuyven claimed the race had resumed without ambulances still on scene — but the jury stated: "The stage was restarted once the medical service confirmed that two doctor's cars and two ambulances had returned to the race."

The jury had no penalties to hand out in stage 1, as confirmed in the post-stage report. The organisation confirmed that all riders caught behind the crash in the final kilometre were given the same time as stage winner Paul Magnier.

A reminder was also issued that discarding food, bags, bidons and clothing outside designated zones is not permitted. And on the subject of zones: the 3-kilometre rule, whereby a rider who suffers a mechanical or crash inside the final 3 kilometres of a flat stage receives the same time as the rider ahead, does not apply in stage 2.

That is an important detail, because any rider who suffers bad luck could easily lose time as a result. The organisation has, however, put in place a mechanical assistance zone between 4 and 2 kilometres from the finish — which makes sense given that stage 2 passes over cobblestones in that section.