Cycling: Orica fined after bus farce

The Orica-GreenEdge team were hit with a fine of 2,000 Swiss Francs (US$2,116) after their bus blocked the finish line to Saturday’s opening stage of this year’s Tour de France, leading to a chaotic finale.

Organisers proposed moving the finish line forward by three kilometres before eventually clearing the bus, which had become stuck under a gantry right at the end of the stage.

That allowed them to revert to the original race plan, but not before confusion among the peloton led to a mass crash six kilometres from the end.

Organisers blamed Orica-GreenEdge for “not respecting the timetable put in place for auxiliary team vehicles arriving at the stage finish.”