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Diving in cycling? Rider fakes crash with 2 km to go

Polish rider stops and sits on the pavement instead of contesting final kilometres of stage

Diving in cycling

Cyclists are celebrated for their tough never give up attitude. After crashes, they get back up onto their bikes bleeding to finish the race. But at the Tour of Norway, television cameras may have caught one of the first instances of diving in cycling.

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Polish rider Pawel Bernas of CCC Sprandi Polkowice was slowed up by a crash on Stage 1 of the Tour of Norway. While a couple of riders hit the deck, Bernas was not one of them. That is until he dismounted his bike and sat down on the pavement.

Helicopter footage of the race caught the crash that involved a number of riders in the finale of the stage won by Dylan Groenewegen. Bernas had been on the attack but was caught by the peloton and initially appeared to have been one of the riders who came to grieve. Upon closer inspection, it is apparent he willingly took himself out of the race in order to avoid the final kilometres of the high-speed affair.

Bernas was forced to apologize for the embarrassing move telling procycling.no that he panicked wanting to make sure he didn’t lose time and wanted to be safe instead of taking risks to remain in the front group.

“I’m sorry for what happened. It looked quite ridiculous. It was right after I had done a job in the final, my head was not clear,” he said. “I did not want to take any chances of jumping over the pavements or stuff like that. So I just wanted to be safe. I decided to put the bike down, so it seemed as if I was in the crash.”

Bernas finished the stage in 114 and was successful in his attempt not to loose time being given the same time as the stage winner.

“My heart rate was at 190 bpm but that’s no excuse. I’m sorry for what happened. It looked absolutely ridiculous,” Bernas explained. “I panicked because of the rules and was afraid to lose time.”