Lotta Henttala claims she never held onto the car in stage 6 of Tour de France Femmes: "I held onto bottle for a few seconds too long"

Lotta Henttala has refuted the claims made by the race jury that she held onto the team car during stage 6 at the Tour de France Femmes. Henttala and AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep director Servais Knaven were disqualified from the race with 70km to go in the stage to Blagnac on Friday.  

"I was not feeling well, and I was empty from the earlier race days and got distanced from the peloton," Henttala explained.

"Servais was trying to help me to continue and gave me a bottle, and I held onto it for a few seconds too long than normally. However, I did not hold on to the car, as what some may have said, and it did not make any difference to my performance and my race could not continue further, unfortunately. I am sorry for it and won't happen again," Henttala formally apologized at the end.

The team also released official statement that expresses their frustration with the jury decision: "We have expressed our disappointment to the race commissioners, pointing out the injustice of their actions and the damage caused to the reputation of Lotta, Servais and the AG Insurance - Soudal Quick-Step team."