Giulio Ciccone, who won the opening stage of the Tour de France, celebrated in his usual style by throwing his sunglasses at spectators. However, this action is not allowed under the new rules and resulted in the Lidl-Trek rider being fined 250 Swiss francs and losing 15 UCI points.
It sparked a wave of outrage on social media from fans and fellow riders. "I didn't think about it. I don't want to say it's stupid, but it's hard to say because the rules change every year. My mistake is that I wasn't familiar with the new rules. I won't do it again," Ciccone promised.
Ciccone's violation of the rules falls under Article 8.3 of the UCI rules: "Disposal of litter or other objects by a rider or team personnel outside the litter areas or failure to return them to the team or the organizers, failure to collect objects by team personnel, throwing objects in the direction of a spectator. Careless or dangerous disposal of litter or other objects (e.g. a bottle or other object remains on the road or bounces back onto the road, is thrown directly or with excessive force towards a spectator, causing a dangerous maneuver by another rider or vehicle, forcing a spectator to step onto the road)."
Winner of the 1st stage of the Tour des Alpes, Giulio Ciccone a été sanctionné pour avoir jeté ses lunettes "de manière négligente", sa célébration fétiche. L'Italien a perdu 15 points UCI (contre 20 pour son succès) et pris une amende de 250CHF. #TotA pic.twitter.com/IrlcjHugZe
— Le Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) April 21, 2025
