Tour de France jury reverses decision to penalise Uran and Bennett for illegal feeds on stage 12

Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) and George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) have earned reprieves after initially being docked time for taking illegal feeds on stage 12 of the Tour de France.

Both riders were initially penalised 20 seconds for taking bottles from the side of the road in the final 20km of the Pyrenean stage, but the race jury has now changed its decision ahead of the start of stage 13 saying that riders were unable to take food and drink earlier in the stage.

The decision had attracted controversy after footage emerged of eventual stage winner Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) appearing to take a bottle at the same time as Bennett. While Bennett was docked time, Bardet escaped punishment and was allowed to keep his stage win.

Cannondale-Drapac general manager Jonathan Vaughters complained to the UCI about the apparently inconsistent punishment, but said he was told on Thursday night that there could be no change to the ruling due to the separation of the race jury and the UCI's executive team.