Thirty-one riders have been disqualified from the Under-23 Giro d’Italia for cheating on stage four.
Spectator footage showed a number of riders holding on to team cars and motorbikes during the summit finish on the Passo dello Stelvio.
Britain’s Noah Hobbs, of the Groupama-FDJ team, was among the disqualified riders.
Of the 35 teams competing in the eight-stage race also known as the ‘Baby Giro’, 15 have been affected.
Following assessment of the footage, 24 riders were initially disqualified by race organisers but that that number later rose to 31.
Those punished included Lotto-Dstny development team leader and Paris-Roubaix U23 winner Tijl de Decker, and Davide Persico of Colpack-Ballan.
In a statement to BBC Sport, world governing body the UCI expressed “full support” for the race organisers, adding that they “took the right decision”.
The stage in question was a 119km ride from Morbegno to Passo dello Stelvio. Johannes Staune-Mittet of Jumbo Vima beat France’s Alexy Faure-Prost to take the win, with Darren Rafferty of Ireland in third.
