UAE Fined after Visma Assists Del Toro Amid Tour de France Mechanical Meltdown

UAE Emirates-XRG pulled off a masterpiece 1-2 with Isaac del Toro and Tadej Pogačar on stage 2 of the Tour de France.

But the masterpiece looks messy beneath the top veneer.

A UAE staff mechanic was fined 500 CHF ($620 USD) amid an intra-team meltdown that saw Del Toro relying on support from rivals at Visma-Lease a Bike after he was mistakenly left marooned with malfunctioning gears.

The chaos descended on UAE Emirates-XRG at around 60km to go of Sunday’s stage into Barcelona.

Del Toro came to a halt at the side of the road with a terminal mechanical. But his support car simply zoomed straight past.

“I had a problem with the bike, and I didn’t have time to make myself properly visible,” Del Toro said in his winner’s press conference. “I tried to warn the cars, but two team cars drove straight past me, right in front of me. There was confusion.”

Torito looked so forlorn after he was missed by his team that he found sympathetic assistance from Ineos and Visma – the yellow jersey rivals he went on to trounce an hour or so later.

“Fortunately, the second car from each team stopped to help me, especially Visma, Netcompany Ineos, and really everyone,” Del Toro said Sunday evening.

“I am very grateful for the help they wanted to give me. A lot of respect to all the teams.”

UAE mechanic rides against traffic in Tour de France rescue mission

Del Toro was eventually able to get a new bike from a UAE Emirates-XRG team car.

But that’s not to say the rescue mission didn’t come without a kerfuffle.

UCI officials fined team mechanic Bostian Kavčnik and handed him a yellow card for “irregular assistance to a rider” after he rode against the traffic on top of Del Toro’s new Colnago.

Kavčnik appears to have been in a car that overshot the stranded Mexican sensation, leaving him forced to ride back down the road.

A sanction and token “card” will have been the last thing on the collective mind of UAE Emirates-XRG on Sunday evening. Del Toro and Pogačar are the deadliest duo in this Tour de France, busted gears or not.