"Motorbikes took it away" - Giro peloton erupts as motorpacing accusations dominate stage 15 sprint upset

The peloton averaged 51.3Km/h racing stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia. The victory for the breakaway came as a surprise and almost felt unbelievable to watch, as the peloton lets its penultimate opportunity slip away in Milano. For many, it was literally an unbelievable performance, and the accusations of motor pacing have come thick and fast over post-race interviews.

Not only have they been quite direct, but from several directions. The day's four-man breakaway of Fredrik Dversnes, Mirco Maestri, Mattia Bais and Martin Malucelli survived the peloton's chase and battled between themselves for the victory. This, despite the full-on chase of entire teams such as Lidl-Trek, Soudal - Quick-Step, Unibet Rose Rockets and the assistance of others in the fniale.

Unibet's Elmar Einders was diplomatic at first when asked about it in a post-race interview: "Exactly why the leaders managed to hold out. It's hard to say, because I wasn't at the front. But we burned out all our guys, so we didn't come back. I tried in the last kilometer and a half, but I had no chance".

However as he was questioned further, the leadout man for Dylan Groenewegen expressed what he meant quite clearly: "Everyone has an explanation, but perhaps not one meant for TV. That there was a very good engine".

The 34-year old simply does not believe that with the intense chasing that took place all day, that it wasn't possible to catch the front group. "We burned out thirty men, and we still didn't succeed. It's hard to believe. Everyone burned out their entire lead-out. Everyone helped. We expected a sprint, and to get close to the win".

Lidl-Trek have not yet won a stage in this Giro, and the growing frustration has hit a new peak today. After stages 4 and 12 where Movistar's pace up the climbs dropped Jonathan Milan; and stage 6 where the dangerous sprint finish in Napoli was marked by a crash; this Sunday's stage marked yet another missed opportunity.

Max Walscheid was vivid after the finish and spared no words when it came to his accusation of the race's motorbikes being too close to the breakaway riders out front. “I know what I’m capable of. I know what the other guys rode and I can see the numbers on my display. I know how hard I can push in a flat time trial. We saw it here and it’s not possible to stay away, I’m sorry.”

The effect of motorbikes or cars sitting in front of groups has been a heavily debated topic throughout the part few years and seems to be growing in influence. Riders are often open about how attacking early is beneficial because they then get a motorbike with them at all times - and can occasionally benefit from slipstreaming.

The German rider believes that is what happened on stage 15. “If I see a lot of 500 [watts] in the front in the last kilometres, then it’s not possible to go faster than this. I think we were never going slower than 50Km/h all day and we went all flat out. All sprint teams, the Rockets burned their team, Quick-Step burned their team, we burned our team. And I think we are good riders.”

Tim Torn Teutenberg of Lidl-Trek was also a rider whose plan was to leadout Jonathan Milan, but ended up being used to chase the breakaway. Despite this sacrifice, the catch was still not made.

"Everyone who understand cycling know that it was bit of a joke today," he too said following the stage. "I don't know what was the mission of the organizers, they wanted to show how cars and morbikes influence the race. This was bullshit."