🎥 'Mean' Vuelta crash sparks outrage: Carapaz criticizes AG2R, Van Aert agrees with O'Connor

Richard Carapaz had an unlucky day in the Vuelta a España on Wednesday. The Ecuadorian climber lost fifteen seconds and his third place in the GC to Enric Mas, and also suffered an awkward crash. Ben O'Connor and his Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team faced heavy criticism for the incident, but was it justified?

As the last few breakaway riders were pulling away from the peloton in the opening phase of stage eleven, Carapaz was on the left side of the road. A rider from Decathlon AG2R "blocked" the road, as they say, and inadvertently pushed the EF Education-EasyPost climber to the side. Team manager Jonathan Vaughters shared the incident on X (formerly Twitter). "That was pretty mean," the American said after watching the footage.

The race organizers seemed to agree, as riders Victor Lafay, Geoffrey Bouchard, and Bruno Armirail received a yellow card for blocking the road. Team manager Cyril Dessel was also penalized, and Lafay, identified as the "culprit," was fined 500 Swiss francs.

Video: Did a Decathlon rider cause Carapaz to fall?

O'Connor criticizes, but his harsh words come back to bite him

Leader Ben O'Connor responded to the incident. The Aussie addressed the UCI through his social media channels: "What dangerous move did my teammates Lafay, Bouchard, and Armirail make to receive a yellow card? We blocked the road, as is done in every race when a breakaway goes up the road. It was never our intention to make anyone crash or push anyone off the road."

O'Connor clearly disagrees with the yellow card. "A yellow card is for dangerous riding, but if we're riding at the front and someone overtakes us on the gravel by the side of the road, isn't that dangerous?" he wonders aloud. The criticism of his two posts on X (formerly Twitter) was harsh. O'Connor felt compelled to delete his account or at least temporarily deactivate it.

Continue reading below the tweet.

Carapaz calls for more respect, Van Aert downplays the incident

Carapaz, the main person involved, spoke about the incident again on Thursday after stage twelve. The EF team leader told Cyclingnews about "a lack of respect." "It was a clear situation. There are many ways to race, but the way they did it is very sad. The worst part is that they haven't even come to me yet. We're still waiting for that. If you make a mistake, you can talk about it and apologize. You can say it wasn't intentional. Now there's just a lot of arrogance; I haven't heard anything from Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. Physically, there were no consequences, but this can't go on like this."

George Bennett understands what Carapaz is talking about because the New Zealander from Israel-Premier Tech narrowly slipped through the AG2R blockade on Wednesday. "They tried to block me, so it was either push through or crash. I did something similar once when we were defending the jersey at Jumbo-Visma, and I blocked Chad Haga. It felt terrible to do, and I rightfully got a fine. It’s important to single out the guys who actually veer off their line to push Carapaz into the grass."

Wout van Aert also weighed in on the controversy in an interview with HLN. The Belgian rider from Visma | Lease a Bike thought the incident with Carapaz was not that big of a deal. "It was a narrow road. If a team is satisfied with a breakaway and has several riders at the front, they're allowed to ride side by side. In my opinion, Carapaz’s crash was just an accident. He went off the road, but when he tried to get back on, he crashed. It only becomes wrong if you intentionally block someone to prevent them from passing. Riding side by side is just part of cycling."