For those that have never heard this terminology of a "sticky bottle" in cycling it is when a rider is handed a bottle from a team car and then is basically propelled forward like a hand sling giving the rider an added advantage. Worse yet is when the car speeds up in this case and makes it very obvious what is happening. This particular instance was so bad on the third water bottle within a short period of time he never even took the bottle.
In this years Tour De France Lenny Martinez was hanging on to the King Of The Mountains jersey for what many thought was longer than he deserved. Every time he was in trouble struggling on a mountain climb he asked his team via radio for a bottle of water and was slung back into the fight. He was eventually docked 8 points and in fairness this was still very lenient. There was no way he was going to win this jersey as the facts are he is just not good enough even with cheating.
On the climb up the Col du Glandon Martinez was recorded not once but three times getting assistance. The first time he asked the team car for a gel which he held on and was propelled back to the group just ahead. What the cameras picked up was he then threw the gel to the ground and asked for another one before getting a sticky bottle helping hand. he went on to reach the summit first and claim the points which other teams rightfully questioned.
What was wrong about the officiating with this mountain stage was the points he "won" were worth 20 points and the officials only deducted 8. Many believe the rider should have been disqualified as this happened every day on the mountain stages and the only reason he was still in the race is because he is French.
During the incident with the bottle the car even sped up offering him more assistance which is blatant cheating. In other races riders do get disqualified for this if it is as blatant as this and officials need to be stronger by clamping down and removing this tactic from the sport. There should be a rule change maybe with a flat palm handing over procedure without both parties hanging on to the bottle.
The prize money for the king of the Mountain Jersey is not big money being €25,000 but the first over the summit earns a daily prize between €300 and €800. Martinez finished in 3rd place this year with 97 points and was eventually 22 points by the winner of this category Pogacar by 22 points. This was too close and he clearly did not deserve to even be on the podium. If they had not docked the 8 points he would have ended up finishing in 2nd spot which makes this competition a farce.
Martinez stated his dream was too win the jersey and hold it all the way to the finish in Paris which would have been unjust and cheapened the jersey. The King Of The Mountains is meant to represent the best climber over the entire event and he clearly was helped on multiple occasions to stay at the top. We see riders on the flat do this, but this does not have such a great effect compared to going up hill yet it is still cheating.
Posted Using INLEO