Team Sky's König among riders sanctioned after stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia
The 16-man long list of riders were all given some level of punishment for holding onto cars or motorbikes for too long on the Queen Stage of the Giro d'Italia
Leopold König (Team Sky) was among 16 riders to be punished by race officials after Tueday's stage at the Giro d'Italia, for holding onto motorbikes or cars for too long on the gruelling route that took in the Passo di Mortirolo.
König was handed a 50 CHF (£34) fine, a 10-second time penalty on GC and five-points removed in the points classification, but the new Team Sky leader remains in sixth position overall despite the offence, now 9-30 back on race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo).
Riders can be disqualified from the race for holding onto vehicles, as happened at the An Post Rás this month, and has previously been enforced at the Giro. In 2012, Robbie Hunter and Andrea Guardini were among four riders pulled from the race for the offence, while Britain's Chris Froome (Team Sky) was chucked out in 2010 for holding onto a motorbike up the Mortirolo.
>>> How fast did Alberto Contador scale the Passo di Mortirolo?
Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Soudal) was another high-profile rider to recieve the same sanction as König in this year's race, leaving the Belgian three minutes of the GC top ten as he finished six minutes behind winner Mikel Landa (Astana) on stage 16.
A number of other riders, Jan Polanc (Lampre-Merida), Francesco Gavazzi (Southeast), Elia Favilli (Southeast) and Marco Coledan (Trek Factory Racing), were given a more severe penalty of 100CHF (£68) and 20 seconds removed from their overall time.
The Giro jury has already hit controversy this year, after it decided to dock Sky's original leader Richie Porte two minutes for accepting 'non-regulation assistance' from compatriot Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) who gave Porte a wheel change.
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Richard is digital editor of Cycling Weekly. Joining the team in 2013, Richard became editor of the website in 2014 and coordinates site content and strategy, leading the news team in coverage of the world's biggest races and working with the tech editor to deliver comprehensive buying guides, reviews, and the latest product news.
An occasional racer, Richard spends most of his time preparing for long-distance touring rides these days, or getting out to the Surrey Hills on the weekend on his Specialized Tarmac SL6 (with an obligatory pub stop of course).
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