2024-09-04 07:27:33
A total of 150 Swiss francs are the fines for the scandal that ended the cycling tour of Bulgaria.
Our rider Martin Papanov won the stage with a finish in Gabrovo after a strong attack on the descent of Shipka and would have finished second in the general classification, and had chances to become the winner of the tour.
However, the Italian coach of the team with a Japanese license, JCL Ukyo, protested that Papanov (in the tour he was part of the Plovdiv club “Tsar Simeon”) drove behind the car of director Evgeni Balev (president of the Bulgarian Cycling Federation). Thus, our cyclist used the air jet, which is prohibited by the regulations.
In the late hours, the Israeli International Cycling Union judge Yoshua Kopitko decided to penalize Papanov with 20 seconds and a fine of 50 Swiss francs, and the stage win (and corresponding bonuses) was taken from him. Thus, our cyclist remained in 8th place in the final ranking, and the champion is Matteo Malucelli (It) from JCL Ukyo. The fine for Ballev is 100 Swiss francs. franc.