Breakaways denying sprinters isn’t the only streak happening at the Tour de France Femmes. Commissaires on Friday’s stage 6 threw Lotta Henttala and her AG Insurance-Soudal Quick-Step director, Servais Knaven, off the race after a mid-stage incident. The move came less than 24 hours after SD Worx manager Danny Stam was similarly disqualified for offering team leader Demi Vollering too much assistance as she came back to the peloton from a flat tire.
In the Henttala-Knaven incident, AG Insurance team confirmed that the pair had been disqualified, but did not offer details. Reportedly, Henttala had been holding onto the team car but this was not officially confirmed, and the race jury report for stage 6 was not available at press time. Post-stage, the report confirmed the pair were disqualified for “a rider hanging on the team vehicle.”
For their part, SD Worx objected to Stam’s disqualification (and the 20-second time penalty for Vollering), protesting that while Stam had indeed assisted Vollering’s return to the pack, his actions weren’t out of the norm for helping riders after mechanical trouble. But the jury, in its stage 6 report amending the earlier punishment, said it had disqualified him for what it called “dangerous overtaking of other cars and riders” as well as Stam’s “inappropriate comments.”
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