It’s not for doping, and it’s not because he’s been hanging around with Lance for too long, but Vincenzo Nibali has been disqualified from the Vuelta a Espana, the third and final Grand Tour of road cycling for 2015.

The low moment comes for the 2014 Tour de France champion after he was captured on camera holding onto his team car on stage two of the race.

In the video below, Nibali can be seen storming up the road before the Astana car pulls up next to him, and he either holds onto the wing mirror, window, or perhaps even a water bottle inside the car.

The Italian was nearly a minute and a half behind the pack after suffering a crash with 30km to go in the stage, when the car arrived beside him and accelerated both itself and Nibali forward.

Speaking after the decision, race jury president Bruno Valcic said: “We saw the videos. We watched the film together with Astana director Stefano Zanini.

“The penalties are really clear. The commissaries had to disqualify Nibali from the race. The sports director driving the car, Alexandre Shefer, is also out of the race.”

Elsewhere, Chris Froome lost four seconds to Nairo Quintana in his bid to become only the third person to ever win the Tour de France and the Vuelta in the same season.

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