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Gianni Moscon disqualified from Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne for throwing bike at another rider (+ video)Gianni Moscon (picture credit Team Ineos).PNG

Gianni Moscon disqualified from Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne for throwing bike at another rider (+ video)

The Team Ineos rider has a bit of previous when it comes to aggession and ill-discipline
by Simon_MacMichael
Sun, Mar 01, 2020 16:46
10

Team Ineos rider Gianni Moscon was disqualified from the Belgian semi-classic Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne today after he was caught on camera throwing a bike at another rider following a crash.

The rider on the receiving end was a member of the B&B Hotels-Vital Concept team who had also been caught up in the crash with around 65 kilometres of the race, won by Kasper Asgreen of Deceuninck-Quick Step, remaining.

The Italian made his feelings clear about his disqualification from the race when it was communicated to him.

After seeming to check that the TV camera was focused on him, he ripped off one of his race numbers and threw it to the ground, before taking off the other one and, theatrically, ripping it in two.

The career of the 25-year-old, fourth in the road race at last September’s world championships in Yorkshire, is littered with instances of aggression and ill-discipline.

In 2018, the UCI banned him for five weeks after he hit Fortuneo-Samsic rider Elie Gesbert during Stage 15 of that year’s Tour de France.

> Gianni Moscon banned for five weeks for hitting out at rider during Tour de France

Sir Dave Brailsford, principal of Team Sky as it then was, said at the time: ““We have a duty of care to all our riders which we take extremely seriously.

“Gianni is still a relatively young rider at the start of his career and we will continue to give him the help and support he needs to learn, develop and move forward from this.”

However, the previous year, Moscon received a formal warning from Team Sky, which also suspended from racing for six weeks, after racially abusing the FDJ rider Kevin Reza.

Later that year, he was accused of deliberately causing Reza’s team mate, Sebastien Reichenbach, to crash with the Swiss rider breaking his elbow and hip.

Moscon was absolved of guilt in that case, but 2017 also saw him disqualified from the world championship road race for taking a tow from his team car.

Gianni Moscon
Team Ineos
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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10 comments

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Bob F | 4 years ago
0 likes

Any successful team is based on three tenets gleaned from:

1 Who's in charge?

2 What are the Rules?

3 Do the Rules have to be obeyed?

One or two out of three won't cut it. Time for Sir Dave to take action. 

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fixit | 4 years ago
2 likes

I don't think we should burn any brain fuel to discus for this moron called moscon. He does this all the time, bullies are not welcome in cycling

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Secret_squirrel replied to fixit | 4 years ago
0 likes

I dont think we should burn brain fuel discussing him.  We should certainly burn brain fuel trying to get idiots like this thrown out.

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Judge dreadful | 4 years ago
1 like

If he can't learn to behave himself a bit better that that, I can't see it ending well for him.

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HarrogateSpa | 4 years ago
3 likes

There's a pattern of Brailsford prioritising performance/winning not just ahead of ethics, but to the exclusion of ethics.

We've had ridiculous amounts of rain this winter, and it's made Harrogate Stray resemble mud flats. That's because the climate has gone haywire, due to burning fossil fuels. I blame, in this order:

  1. Ineos
  2. Dave Brailsford
  3. Geraint Thomas
  4. road.cc for constantly giving publicity to a team sponsored by a company determined to make more money out of wrecking the climate further
  5. Myself

Moscon should now be sacked, but I'm not holding my breath. Brailsford needs to end his team's sponsorship deal ASAP.

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Secret_squirrel replied to HarrogateSpa | 4 years ago
0 likes

Are you for real? I think you need sarcasm tags on the parts of  of your post that are meant to be funny.

Maybe next time drop trying to be funny - it obscures your point.   Which is yes Moscon should be sacked and yes it debatable whether Brailsford would do that.  The whole climate rant in the middle was un-needed.

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CXR94Di2 | 4 years ago
1 like

I suspect that its the end of his contract with Ineos

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Rapha Nadal replied to CXR94Di2 | 4 years ago
3 likes

You'd like to think so wouldn't you but they kept him on after racially abusing Reza which should be a sackable offence regardless of who you and where your employment of contract is!

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RobD replied to Rapha Nadal | 4 years ago
0 likes

Makes you wonder just how many times they'd forgive him, the fact that he's a bit of a liability and potentially likely to get himself thrown off of a race makes you wonder why they'd bother with him. And how would he respond to team orders he didn't agree with? I wouldn't want to trust him if I was a protected rider in the team.

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Cupov | 4 years ago
3 likes

Looking forward to the scripted apology.

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