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Marianne Vos disqualified for ‘puppy paws’ after Vårgårda victory

Marianne Vos disqualified for 'puppy paws' after Vårgårda victory

Marianne Vos was celebrating victory at the Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden road race when commissaires made a very late decision to disqualify the Jumbo-Visma rider for breaking the so-called ‘puppy paws’ rule about 13 kilometres from the finish. With Vos relegated, Trek-Segafredo’s Audrey Cordon-Ragot inherited the victory.

The infraction came shortly after the decisive move broke clear from the speeding peloton. With the currently unbeatable Lorena Wiebes in the pack, attacks had been relentless in the late laps of the Swedish one-day race, and Vos was one of those determined to make something stick. She, Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM), Valerie Demey (Liv Racing Xstra) and Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo) eventually formed the winning move, and it was Vos who ultimately raised her arms in victory in Vårgårda.

Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo) wins Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden road race after disqualification of Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma).

However, there were rumblings among the most watchful eyes who had spotted Vos’s momentary lapse in judgment as decades of racing instinct brought her forearms down to her bars, fingertips dangling over the front wheel: ‘puppy paws’, i.e. a position that was banned by the UCI last season.

Vos had been celebrating a fourth victory at the race (she won in 2009, 2013 and 2018) with her teammates and giving post-race interviews, but all the while, the race jury was in discussion. The final decision came about 30 minutes after Vos had crossed the finish line, echoing the devastatingly late disqualification suffered by Nils Eekhoff at the U23 road world champs in Harrogate in 2019.

It once again begs the question: surely an in-race infraction can and should be dealt with before the culprit has a chance of winning? Or having any more impact on the race?

As it is, with Vos being in that group, and one of the others being a teammate of Wiebes, it’s pretty likely that a DSQ on entry to the last lap, for instance, would have changed the outcome dramatically and Wiebes would be celebrating an umpteenth 2022 victory.

That said, the window was already pretty small, the incident coming so close to the end of the race, so it would have required very quick and decisive action from the race jury.

There is no perfect outcome, but what we’ve got is a race dominated tactically by Jumbo-Visma and Marianne Vos, whose signature is all over the last lap or so, but whose name does not appear at the top of the results sheet.

Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden RR (1.WWT) Vårgårda → Vårgårda

CORDON-RAGOT Audrey
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CORDON-RAGOT Audrey Trek - Segafredo
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DEMEY Valerie Liv Racing Xstra
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WIEBES Lorena Team DSM
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GUARISCHI Barbara Movistar Team
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DRONOVA-BALABOLINA Tamara Roland Cogeas Edelweiss Squad
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STEIGENGA Nicole Team Coop - Hitec Products
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NEUMANOVA Tereza Liv Racing Xstra
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