Lorena Wiebes was disqualified from the women’s Giro d’Italia on Saturday night, hours after crossing first in Ravenna, and Elisa Balsamo was promoted to the opening-stage win. Race organisers said the 27-year-old was removed for using a bicycle that did not comply with the regulations because it failed the minimum weight requirement.
The ruling immediately changed the first maglia rosa of the race. Wiebes had beaten Balsamo and Lara Gillespie to the line after the 139km opening stage from Cesenatico ended with three laps of a 13.2km city circuit, but the jury later said the bike weighed 6.78kg, below the UCI’s 6.8kg lower limit.
For Balsamo, the win came with an awkward edge. “Of course, it is not the way I want to win but this is a decision of the jury,” she said. “In any case, it's an honour to wear the maglia rosa and I am looking forward to trying to defend it in tomorrow's stage.” She will start Sunday’s 156km second stage between Roncade and Caorle in the leader’s jersey.
Team SD Worx-Protime said it was stunned by what it called an exceptionally harsh penalty and said it had serious doubts about the checks carried out during the Giro d’Italia Women. The team said there was a weight difference of more than 50g between the first and second weighing of Wiebes’ bike after the finish in Ravenna, and said the same bike had raced multiple times this season, always assembled in the same manner, and had collected numerous wins. Earlier this year, after several of those sprint victories, the bike had been weighed by the UCI jury and found to be well above 6.8kg on each occasion.
The dispute landed on a day already marked by crashes. Cat Ferguson went down after just 35km and abandoned the race, and Movistar said the 20-year-old was taken to hospital for medical evaluation. Wiebes, who won the points classification at last year’s Giro d’Italia, lost the stage result and the first leader’s jersey on the same night it had seemed to be hers. The unanswered question now is why the same bike that previously cleared the limit was recorded at 6.78kg when it mattered most.
