MADRID (Reuters) - Jose Rojas was stripped of the lead in the Tour of Catalonia on Tuesday after he was penalised for giving an illegal push to his Movistar team mates during their winning team time trial ride. The controversy meant the overall lead was passed instead to his Movistar team mate and one of the race favourites, Alejandro Valverde. The drama began after two teams, BMC and Trek-Segafredo, both complained about how Rojas had given team mates a helping push on an uphill stretch of the course. "We have seen the pictures on the TV and they show clearly that Rojas pushes the other riders, which is forbidden during a race," UCI commissaries president Ernesto Maggioni told reporters. "We did finish far behind our direct rivals -- one minute 15 seconds behind Valverde is a lot of time."

Source: The Star March 21, 2017 19:18 UTC