French sprinter Nacer Bouhanni has yet to find the podium in the 2017 Tour de France. He did, however, earn himself a penalty Tuesday in stage 10.
The UCI race jury docked Bouhanni one minute in the overall and slapped him with a 200CHF fine.
In the run to Bergerac, the controversial Cofidis rider was seen taking his right hand off his handlebars and striking a Quick-Step Floors rider.
Further, Bouhanni swung aggressively into another Quick-Step rider, Fabio Sabatini, just before the final corner in the sprint finish.
Bouhanni could only manage sixth in the stage behind Quick-Step’s Marcel Kittel.
The penalty shouldn’t faze Bouhanni, who has never been one for the overall classification. However, it did race questions of fairness. In stage 4, world champion Peter Sagan was ejected from the Tour de France altogether for a crash with Mark Cavendish.
Commentators on NBC Sports were quick to point out the disparity. Former professional Bob Roll even went so far as to call the jury’s penalty “meaningless” and its decision “spineless.”
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