Ciccone demands clarity over European photo finish

Giulio Ciccone has asked for greater transparency over the photo finish that awarded Remco Evenepoel the European road title by 0.0028 seconds. The Italian said he accepts that Evenepoel was the strongest rider, but wants to see an image corresponding exactly to the physical finish line before considering the matter closed.

Ciccone said he had reviewed the available footage hundreds of times and could not reconcile the television images with the verdict. He met the commissaires and Italian federation technicians, who explained how the system and the interpretation criteria worked, but his request concerns the visual correspondence between the scan and the painted line.

The UEC defended the result. It said the EtherLynx Vision PRO X system scanned the finish line 13,000 times per second and that two independent systems, positioned on opposite sides of the road, produced separate images confirming the order. The horizontal axis of a photo finish represents time rather than distance, which explains the apparent distortion of the riders and bicycles.