Dennis weighs into time trial controversy

Mar 21, 2017 - 6:22 PM Australian rider Rohan Dennis has hit out after Movistar claimed victory in the Volta a Catalunya team time trial.

The Spanish team finished two seconds clear of Dennis' BMC outfit and almost a minute ahead of Team Sky in third in Tuesday's stage two, but television pictures clearly showed Movistar's Nelson Oliveira giving teammate Jose Rojas - who was in line to take the overall lead in the race - a shove during the stage, prompting other teams to complain.

Rules state that under such circumstances each member of the team should have one minute added to their time, but instead commissaires chose to add a minute to Oliveira's time and three to Rojas' time, while keeping Movistar as winners of the stage.

"@UCI_cycling what ever happened to changing this sports image for the better? #alltalk," Dennis tweeted after the stage.

The overall lead passed to Rojas' Spanish teammate Alejandro Valverde, rather than BMC's Ben Hermans who might have expected it to come to him. Dennis is in ninth overall.

A post on the official Volta a Catalunya Twitter feed read: "Three minutes penalty for @jjrojillas for pushing a teammate. @alejanvalverde, new leader"

For Team Sky, third place keeps Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Mikel Landa in contention for the general classification, and was a significant improvement on their last team time trial at the Tirreno-Adriatico, where a series of wheel failures cost them almost two minutes and ended Thomas' GC bid before it had truly begun.

Wednesday's stage runs over 188.3km from Mataro to a mountain finish at La Molina.

Source: AAP