Greig Leach

There is an expression in cycling, "Getting a sticky bottle." It means that a cyclist and the team director in the car will hold onto a water bottle a little longer than necessary thus towing the cyclist along. The UCI Road World Champion, Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) was having a rough Paris Roubaix Femmes with both a crash and a poorly timed flat tire. As she was working her way back up to the peloton she use a sticky bottle move to catch a bit of a rest. Problem was, she was caught on camera and disqualified for holding onto her team car for way too long. She was pulled out of the race so as not to provide any help to her teammates that were still in the race. I'm used to seeing this move resulting in a time penalty in the big tours, but this is the first time I have seen a rider kicked out of the race. I guess that is a difference of a stage race versus a one day race.