King of the Mountains leader disqualified after breakaway incident at O Gran Camiño

Tomas Contte (Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé), who led the King of the Mountains standings at O Gran Camiño, attempted to join the early breakaway on stage 4 in an attempt to secure more points. 

However, due to a reported “act of aggression” during the first breakaway attempt, Contte was disqualified from the race, conceding the mountains classification lead in the process, which he had held since the second stage. 

Contee had already won the mountains classification at the Volta ao Algarve in February against WorldTour opposition, and was looking to make his mark once more.

Speaking to Ciclismo International after the stage, Contte explained the incident from his point of view, which involved a rider from Movistar.

“A breakaway had formed, and I was fighting for the mountain sprint and had to get in. Then they closed the road, as they always do when a breakaway forms, but in reality, the breakaway wasn't actually formed,” Contte told Ciclismo International.

“There were people trying to attack, they gave me some space, I attacked, and a Movistar rider, I don't know who exactly, looked back, saw me, and went after me as I was coming at speed,” added Contte. 

The Argentinian explained that he put his hand on the rider as a mechanism of balance, but that wasn’t enough to stop him from crashing. 

“When that happened, which was from left to right, and since there was a rider next to me, I tried to put my hand on his backside to avoid falling. I fell anyway, recovered, and chased,” said Contte.

Once he had remounted and chased back on, Contte was hit with the news that the race officials had decided to disqualify him from the race. He received the news in a blunt manner without explanation, according to the Argentinian.

“When I rejoined the peloton, the race official called me over to tell me I was disqualified. They didn't say anything, just that I was disqualified. The official closed the window in my face, and that was it.”

In the absence of Contte, Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who won stage 4, not only leads the GC, but also the mountains classification, level with Samuel Fernández on 10 points.

This isn’t the first incident involving a classification leader in this edition of O Gran Camiño. At the end of stage 3, Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma | Lease a Bike) was initially awarded the race leader's yellow jersey, only for the officials to reverse the decision later in the evening to Alessandro Pinarello (NSN).

Nordhagen and Pinarello are Yates' closest challengers in the GC ahead of Saturday's fifth and final stage, sitting 0:34 and 0:54 behind the British rider, respectively.