Spanish sports director Eleuterio Anguita Hinojosa was expelled from the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal after driving excessively fast during the junior men’s road race – so much so that his car briefly left the ground.
A former professional rider in the 1990s and a veteran of 12 Grand Tours, Anguita Hinojosa was fined 1,000 Swiss francs (around €1,060) after the incident. Video of the incident was captured by a roadside spectator, and shows Anguita Hinojasas driving very fast along a straight length of road, between barriers thronging with fans. At one stage the car hits a bump in the road and the rear wheels leave the road – to the clear astonishment of the onlooking spectators.
Anguita Hinojosa was listed in the post-race communiqué as having breached Article 2.12.007.6.3, regulations or guidelines concerning vehicles movements during the race. The UCI’s regulations say drivers should “drive in a prudent manner to safeguard the safety of riders in the race, spectators and other vehicles”.
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Despite Anguita Hinojosa’s explusion from the race, the Spanish junior team will leave Montréal with a swagger, after Benjamin Noval of Spain came away with two gold medals. He took the first in the junior men’s time trial on Tuesday, which saw him beat Belgium’s Vic de Smet by six seconds over the 20.3km course.
Two days later in the junior men’s road race – the same race which saw Anguita Hinojosas’s driving antics – Noval took his second gold. The 17-year-old, who is signed to Netcompany-Ineos on a two-year contract, beginning next year, soloed away on the final lap of the 134km race. He held off runner-up Simon Defrance of France by 42 seconds, while the chasing group was led in 2:12 down, by Sweden’s Elias Wandel for the bronze medal.
Noval, who is the son of Lance Armstrong’s former domestique at Discovery Channel and Astana of the same name, will consider his victories recompense for the heartache he suffered last year in Kigali, when he crashed in the final three kilometres while looking like a cert for a medal – perhaps even gold.
