"Maybe they skipped a grade because their math doesnt check out" - French DS fuming as Itzulia jury lets Alex Aranburu to keep the stage 3 victory

Alex Aranburu was ultimately awarded the victory in Wednesday's highly controversial stage of Itzulia Basque Country. The decision-making process of race jury, who took several hours to reach a final decision, came to a conclusion that the Spanish champion did nothing wrong.

Sports director of Groupama - FDJ, Philippe Maduit is still furious as his rider Romain Grégoire was robbed of a victory, he feels. Maduit thinks that the jury always intended to make the wish of home hero Aranburu come true at all cost.

"Let's recap the facts," he begins his story to L'Équipe. "There is a boy called Aranburu. He is the Spanish champion, he lives 3 kilometres from the finish and he dreamed of this finish for weeks when he heard about the route. Every time he came back from training, he rode these roads home. And he must have known that the fastest way around the roundabout was to go clockwise."

The fact that the Spaniard from Cofidis learned in advance that he had to turn right from the roadbook is no excuse, according to Maduit. The organization should have seen it that way too since the roadbook is not absolute. "They say that the riders have to know the course, but the regulations also stipulate that the organizers, due to an incident or something else, can change the course at the last minute."

That could've been the exact scenario on Wednesday, when the left side of roundabout was open instead. "And there you have a yellow barrier that blocks half the road and three yellow flags that point you to the other side. You don't have time to think, so you follow the instructions of the traffic controllers."

Aranburu didn't. In the end, he was awarded the victory after the jury decided he had done nothing wrong. They argued that he had travelled the longest distance by riding clockwise. "I don't know what their level of education is. Maybe they skipped a grade, because they said Aranburu had travelled a greater distance. They forgot a fundamental mathematical principle."

Maduit keeps harping on about foul play from the organization. They don't want to take away the Basque's joy, he thinks. "There was actually only one rider who passed on the right, only one, the boy from the village, the man who had been dreaming of victory for weeks, and the boy who missed out on a podium place, who stood crying at the bottom of the podium with his family, his friends, his children, his parents. Yesterday we ruined the dream of one man."

"And a second one," he adds. Because Grégoire ended up empty-handed after going through all the ceremony and formalities, and who actually never wanted to win this way (again) since the beginning.

In any case, it was a chaotic situation, and the decision was very difficult. But the sports director of Groupama - FDJ has a final shout at the commissaires. "They have been drinking beer like everyone else: everything is fine, we are in the best of all possible worlds, on holiday in the Basque Country, the weather is nice, the sun is shining, we are driving around in cars... They are not taking it seriously, we are being led by clowns," Maduit concludes his argument.