‘It was fair that I got it’ – Alessandro Romele accepts yellow card for crash incident that led to Luca Van Boven Vuelta a España abandon

Van Boven spent the night in hospital, and was confirmed by Lotto-Intermarché as a non-starter for stage 8. While Romele accepted responsibility for what had happened, the Lotto-Intermarché team management, talking to Sporza, said they did not blame Romele for the incident, saying “he does not have eyes in the back of his head.”

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“It also wasn’t an ideal moment for him to pass, given that we were coming up to a right-hand turn, but I take the responsibility. I accept the card, it was fair I got it,” Romele told a small group of reporters, including Cyclingnews, at the start. 

“Like they say in F1, it was a racing incident, a moment in which the peloton was quite relaxed, and we were going quite slowly. I lost control of my bike a bit on a speed bump, and that caused me to veer to the right, just as Luca was coming up after taking on bottles for his teammates.”

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“I wrote a message to Luca straight after the stage just to clarify what happened. To tell the truth, I wanted to do it in person today at the bus, because I don’t really like sending messages, I’d have preferred to speak face to face. But that’s ok.”

“I heard that Luca was going to hospital, so I got his number and I spoke to him, and he understood the situation and that it was an accident. He understood that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

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“We spoke and cleared the air, and I’m very happy about that because the most important thing is to clear things up between you as riders. 

In terms of how the yellow card affects him for today’s sprint, Romele said it was something that didn’t help, but “yesterday was an episode that doesn’t represent who I am. I’m at peace with myself.”

“We’ll definitely have to pay more attention because of the card, but we’ll try to get through as best we can in the remainder of the race.”

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Lotto-Intermarché were more than prepared to put the incident behind them, saying Romele had expressed regret and concern immediately after the crash, even coming to the Lotto team car during the stage to check on Van Boven’s condition.