Tour de France defending champion Jonas Vingegaard's Visma|Lease a Bike team have been banned from using a new data-collecting van on the route of the world's greatest cycling race.
The team proudly unveiled its "innovative Control Room" shortly before the 111th edition of the Tour started on Saturday in Italy. It was meant to provide the team with important data on the race in real time given signal failures in TV images, helping them react quicker tactically.
But cycling's world governing body the UCI launched a probe into the van and Tour organizer ASO told dpa on Monday that the UCI has banned the van and it does not have accreditation.
The exact reasons for the decision were not revealed although the UCI had previously said that sporting fairness and equal access to technology had to be guaranteed.
Team cars drive behind the peloton, carrying team chiefs, spare bikes, cyclist refreshments and collecting some data, but a big van full of computer equipment appears to have been ruled unfair.
Visma team boss Grischa Niermann felt aggrieved but also saw a loophole even without race accreditation.
"Nothing happens in this vehicle that you couldn't see at home," he told the Radsport News website and added: "The vehicle doesn't necessarily have to be at the race, it can be anywhere."
