"Is that fairplay? I’m not so sure" - Ben O'Connor continues tirade against UCI after yellow card drama and aims shot at Cristian Rodriguez at La Vuelta 2024

Stage 11 was not a good day for the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team. After Ben O'Connor suffered some more time loss in the fight for the Red Jersey, cutting his advantage in the general classification, the team were struck with a number of yellow cards from the UCI.

It all comes back to when the breakaway had formed and Decathlon put themselves across the road to attempt to block any counters, as teams do in almost every race ed. Sadly however, on this occasion, Richard Carapaz was pushed into a ditch, resulting in fury from EF Education Easy-Post boss Jonathan Vaughters on X afterwards.

Speaking of X, Ben O'Connor was forced to delete his social media account on Wednesday night after the immense response to his questioning of the UCI's punishment for his teammates, with a post. Despite his X blackout, O'Connor did talk to Eurosport about the incident ahead of stage 12.

"I really think we did absolutely nothing wrong," the Australian insisted again. "We’ve spoken to EF together and everything is clear – there was zero animosity. Geoffrey Bouchard really did absolutely nothing. I don’t really understand the sanctioning with the other boys in the team either because we really didn’t do anything wrong."

"I was also on the front but didn’t receive a yellow card, neither did Wout van Aert, who was also right next to me, so what does it mean? I really don’t get it," O'Connor continues. "He [Carapaz] may have hit the pedal or the wheel, but my team-mate [Lafay] did not move at all. He was there on the left – he didn’t swing left, he was just riding. It’s not very fair, to be honest."

Another flashpoint came immediately afterwards when Decathlon riders were seen visibly frustrated at Arkea - B&B Hotels' Cristian Rodriguez. "We told him that he was not going to get in the break. But he then attacked after Carapaz’s crash. He was on his wheel. He saw him crash, then he attacked," O'Connor recalls with a critical tone. "Is that fairplay? I’m not so sure."