Nibali kicked out of Vuelta for holding onto team car

Vincenzo Nibali is disqualified from the Vuelta a Espana after television images show him being towed back into the pack following a crash in stage two.

Esteban Chaves of Orica-GreenEdge has won Stage 2 of the Vuelta to take the race leader’s red jersey, beating Giant-Alpecin’s Tom Dumoulin to the line at the summit finish at Caminito del Rey.

Unconfirmed reports from the race first suggested that the race jury wanted to expel him from the event, but that his Astana team had asked them to instead impose a ten minute time penalty.

With Chaves and a small group already up the road, Nairo Quintana sprang away from the field with three kilometers remaining as the runner up in this year’s Tour de France looked to try and put early seconds into Chris Froome, his nemesis in France. Spaniard Purito Rodriguez was fifth and countryman Alejandro Valverde sixth. The spill held up almost two thirds of the peleton and several riders needed medical assistance, although no serious injuries were reported. Nibali, who also won the 2013 Giro d’Italia and 2014 Tour de France, was sent back to Italy along with the sports director driving the vehicle, Alexandre Shefer.

Nibali was able to rejoin the leaders before the final climb, but is now out of the race.

The 7.4-kilometre (4.6-mile) stage from Puerto Banus to Marbella along Spain’s southern coast was won by the BMC team, with American rider Tejay Van Garderen in first place. The three-week Vuelta started with a team time trial on Saturday, but it didn’t count toward individual times because of safety concerns over a route of narrow stretches on sandy dirt.

Team Sky were right on the front when the escapees were brought back in the last 10km, with Ian Boswell and Thomas pushing a hard pace before Roche was called into action and battled to seal his highest finish to date in Team Sky colours.

“I hope to hold onto the red jersey (the overall leader) for as long as possible”. The Italian had been delayed by a large crash which took down many riders inside the final 30 kilometres.