Action by 2018LTdL race commissioner appropriate: Kumaresan

DUNGUN: The organiser of the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2018, Ciclista Sports Sdn Bhd respects the decision of the International Cycling Union (UCI) which disqualified China's rider, Chen Zi Wen from competing in the Asian top cycling race.
Ciclista Sports chief executive officer M Kumaresan clarified that the action taken by the race commissioner on the rider of the Giant Cycling Team was appropriate because the rider had breached UCI regulations.
"The chief commissioner saw the incident where the rider from China had thrown the beverage bottle towards Mohd Harrif Saleh and it was clearly a serious offence.
"So the outcome of the discussion by the five-member panel of the race commissioner on the incident was that they decided to disqualify the Chinese rider," Kumaresan said.
He disclosed this when approached by reporters before the start of stage four of the LTdL here.
Chen was disqualified from LTdL 2018 after he was found guilty of attacking national rider, Mohd Harrif Saleh from the Terengganu Professional Bicycle Racing Team (TSG) after the conclusion of stage three from Kota Baru to Kuala Terengganu, today.
The incident was reported to have been viralled in the social website and received criticism from a group of netizens.
Chen was fined 300 Swiss franc (RM1,231) after he was found guilty of violating two regulations under the UCI namely Article 30.1 of the Acts of Violence among riders besides Article 37 which was behaviour damaging the image of cycling.
Meanwhile, Mohd Harrif was fined 50 Swiss francs (RM205) for breaching Article 30.1 but was still allowed to continue the race in LTdL 2018. — Bernama