Lotta Henttala, who was disqualified from the Tour of France on Friday, says that she would have stopped the race anyway.
Road cyclist Lotta Henttala was abandoned on Friday in the sixth stage of the Tour de France. Initially, it was said that the reason was that Henttala was holding on to the service car of his Soudal-Quick Step team. The touch was too long in the opinion of the jury.
The athlete says that he was about to cancel his competition anyway due to his poor health.
– I was unwell, everything came out of my stomach and I had dropped out of the group. I got more to drink from the service car and held the bottle for a moment too long. They then saw it as a really dramatic or horrible thing, even though I wasn’t going back to the race anymore, Henttala tells Urheilu.
Henttala was so tight that he would not have been able to continue the race any further.
– Pretty harsh sentence, because I would have stopped the race anyway. Still getting rejected, so it was a disgusting thing. It seems unreasonable.
Henttala did not receive any warning about the situation. Also the garage boss who drove the service car Servais Knaven disketted.
Henttala says he has never experienced a similar situation before.
“Incredibly tough race”
Henttala’s preparation for the Tour of France was challenging. According to the cyclist, he has not ridden such a tough race in five years. However, the overall feeling of the tour was good for the cyclist who rode as the team’s co-driver.
The Women’s Tour of France is on the program for the second time.
– An incredibly tough race. The team had no choice but to take me. Of course, it’s great that I was able to race again. Otherwise, a perfectly organized race.
Henttala took a competitive break in 2020. In February, he returned from a three-year hiatus at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana race in Spain.
The Tour de France Femmes stage race will be held for the second time this year. The competition ends on Sunday.
This year, the women’s race has eight stages and covers a total of 956 kilometers.
Read more: The prize money is only a tenth of the men’s sums – Lotta Henttala talks about the importance of the new event for women’s cycling: “The rise is only at the beginning”
Before today’s last stage in southern France, in Pau, at the top of the race and firmly in the overall race victory is the Dutch team SD Worx Demi Volleringwho dominated the seventh stage.
Saturday’s stage 7, Lannemezan – Tourmalet Bagnères-de-Bigorre, about 90 km:
1) Demi Vollering, Holland, Movistar 2.52.43
2) Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Poland, Canyon – SRAM Racing +1.58
3) Annemiek van Vleuten, Holland, Movistar +2.34
Overall situation after stage 7/8:
1) Demi Vollering, Holland, Movistar 24.48.10
2) Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Poland, Canyon – SRAM Racing +1.50
3) Annemiek van Vleuten, Holland, Movistar +2.28