Watch: Footage of the crash that forced Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg to publicly defend Rui Costa

With 12 km to go on stage 2 of the Saudi Tour, Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg of NTT Pro Cycling was riding in the thick of the peloton and moved slightly to the left. In a reaction to the movement, UAE Team Emirates racer Rui Costa raised his arm and pushed the NTT rider away. The altercation caused Van Rensburg to crash, taking down a number of other cyclists with him and creating a media storm as a result.

Footage: Flobikes.com

After the stage, Costa was strongly critiqued on social media when a clip of the incident emerged. He released a statement, claiming that he had acted in self defense, and that he and Van Rensburg had reconciled after the stage. Costa, the race leader at the time, first thanked his teammates and UAE Team Emirates staff in an Instagram post. He went on to state that the Van Rensburg had become unbalanced when a teammate accidently touched him, and had come to the UAE Team Emirates bus to clarify the incident.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Olá amigos ? boa tarde! Terminada mais uma etapa com a camisola verde a manter-se na nossa equipa! Agradeço a todos os meus colegas o excelente trabalho para me proteger. Obrigado também ao staff que não deixa que nada nos falte. Só temos mesmo que dar o nosso melhor. ? Quero lamentar o incidente durante a etapa que levou à queda do colega da NTT, que por sua vez, derrubou outros corredores, acidentalmente. Faço questão de esclarecer que foi o próprio Van Rensberg que se desequilibrou e vinha contra mim. O gesto que eu faço é de proteção. Caso contrário, cairia eu também. Ele próprio veio ao nosso autocarro esclarecer que foi ele que se desequilibrou porque um colega seu lhe tocou acidentalmente. Agradeço ao Van Rensburg por este cuidado. ? Ficou tudo esclarecido deste lado, espero que por aí também fique. Obrigado por todo o vosso apoio. Aquele abraço ? ? Bettini #UAETeamEmirates #RideTogheter #SaudiTour

A post shared by Rui Costa (@ruicostacyclist) on Feb 5, 2020 at 8:16am PST

Van Rensburg comes to Costa’s defense

On February 6, after many fans continued to criticize Costa on twitter, Van Rensburg felt the need to release a statement in defence of Costa.

My full statement on the crash of yesterday! I hope we can let it in the past and move on now ✌? pic.twitter.com/WoBTuR5gpI

— Reinardt JvRensburg (@ReinvanRensburg) February 6, 2020

“Yesterday, I went down in a crash with 12km to go. After a lot of speculation in the media, I decided to allow some time to process the situation before I responded,” wrote Van Rensburg on Twitter.

“There was speculation that Rui Costa made me fall, by pushing out his hand and knocking me off balance. To be honest, the fall was initiated from me, as I touched the wheel of my teammate in front of me, causing me to lose balance. I then hit the bike of Marco Marcato.

“At this point Rui, who already had his hand around his face, gave me a push as a reaction to protect himself. It is so that timing of the push at the moment when my front wheel was stuck between Marco’s bike and his foot, which was coming back as he was pedaling.

“In the end, I knew that Rui will have trouble from the jury, who probably could have expelled him from the race. And while it’s true that his reaction didn’t help me avoid crashing, I felt that, the kind of punishment would be too extreme in this case, as he didn’t purposely endanger me, but it was merely a reaction in my opinion.

“Further, I would like to enforce the mentality that riders should keep their hands on their handlebars and avoid pushing or pulling each other, which might endanger safety. I hope we can move on from this issue now and do what we love… Race our bikes hard!”

The final stage of the Saudi Tour will take place Feb. 8. Costa has now fallen to third in the GC, while Team Arkéa Samsic racer Nacer Bouhanni is currently in first.