Alex Dowsett suggested that Filippo Ganna and Remco Evenpoel were taking advantage of a "gray area" when they were being followed by a team car carrying spare bikes during the time trial.

Ganna and Evenpoel were tailed by a team car carrying several spare bikes as they finished first and second in the Tirreno-Adriatico time trial on Monday. As reported in this week's Cycling News, the larger surface area of the trailing team cars gives the riders an aerodynamic advantage.

At the start of Wednesday's Tirreno-Adriatico stage, Cycling News asked Dowsett, one of the world's leading time triallists and a keen pursuer of aerodynamic advantages (he was chasing with one spare bike on Monday), for his thoughts on the issue.

"I think we need 10 bikes in case of a flat tire, because there must be a prototype tire that is more likely to go flat. That's obviously why there are so many bikes on the roof rack," Dowsett said.

Dowsett's real intention was less clear, but he noted that the practice raises several issues related to fair play and used the term "gray area" twice.

Team cars are supposed to ride at least 10 meters behind the riders, but there is no UCI rule governing the number of spare bikes that can be loaded into a team car during a time trial.

"We are in a gray area between the spirit of fair play and the UCI rule book," Dowsett said.

"If there is no rule against it, then it is not cheating," he added.

"Skin suits are an aerodynamic advantage that makes riders faster, and pushing from behind is ......" Is this in the spirit of fair play?

One of the questions is how much gain is involved. Belgian scientist Bart Brocken calculated that following a car at a distance of 10 meters would result in a drag reduction of about 0.23 percent, or 0.078 seconds per kilometer.

Ineos Grenadiers seems to think it has some value, as Ganna (and others, even the GC leaders) were followed by following cars in three of the four time trials held this year and on the final day of last year's Giro d'Italia.

"It's not what you feel," Dowsett said. 'It's still pushing air. It's nothing different than what is being pushed in front of you. The power is the same, and you might look down and think, 'I went from 54 km/h to 55 km/h,' but you won't notice it."

Similarly, Dowsett acknowledged that these gains were largely irrelevant because Gana is so dominant, but he nevertheless suggested that the practice of stacking cars raises ethical issues.

"Bicycle teams are a business. There are rules, and it's like, "We do it because it's not against the rules." But in fact, when it all comes out, will the riders lose credibility?" he wondered

. After all, if Ganna can create the difference between second and third place, he does not need such outside influence. In fact, no one knows the gain.

"If your opponent is sitting 10 meters behind you, it could be just a few percent difference; if he is 30 meters away, it could be a zero percent gain. It's gray."