Catania, Tuesday 9th May 2017 - During the 4th stage of Giro d’Italia, in the heat of the battle for position, our rider Javier Moreno pushed Team Sky rider Diego Rosa which caused him to crash. For this act, our rider received an expulsion from the race.

We at Team Bahrain Merida, support and respect the decision from UCI, and on behalf of Javier Moreno we apologize to Diego Rosa and Team Sky.

“My teammates and me were all in the line coming to the final climb, team Sky came up on the left and Rosa wanted to get onto my teammates wheel in front of me. When he realized I was resisting, he aggravated me to which I reacted by pushing him, unfortunately causing him to crash. I want to apologize for my reaction and make it clear that it was not my intention for him to crash. I apologize to him and Team Sky, as well as to my teammates and sponsors,” said Javier Moreno.

Our GM Brent Copeland, who was present at the race said: “This was unfortunate situation which happened during a tense moment of the race, however Javier’s act is not acceptable.  On behalf of team Bahrain Merida we apologize to those involved."