Reinard Janse van Rensburg (NTT Pro Cycling) defended former road race world champion Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) after he was criticized for causing a crash on the second stage of the Tour of Saudi Arabia.

In the incident, which occurred with around 10km remaining, Van Rensburg moved to the left side, after which Rui Costa raised his arm and pushed the NTT rider away. This move caused Van Rensburg to fall over and several other riders were also involved.

He finished the stage, but many of his teammates apparently shared the video online and criticized Costa. The Portuguese rider later issued a statement saying that he had moved his hands to defend himself and that he had spoken to Van Rensburg after the stage.

On Thursday, Van Rensburg supported Rui Costa's argument, but stressed that riders in the group should always keep their hands off the bars.

"Yesterday, I crashed with 12km to go. After much speculation in the media, I decided to take some time to sort out the situation before responding," Van Rensburg wrote on Twitter.

"There was speculation that Rui Costa pushed his hand out and lost his balance, causing me to fall. To be honest, the fall came from me, I touched the wheel of a teammate in front of me and lost my balance. I then hit Marco Marcato's bike.

"At this point, Rui, who already had his hands around my face, recoiled and pushed me to protect himself. My front wheel got stuck between Marco's bike and his leg, and I was pushed just as Marco was pedaling and his leg came back.

"In the end, I knew that Rui was going to be a problem for the judges. While it is true that his reaction did not help me avoid crashing, I felt that the punishment in this case was too extreme, since he did not intentionally put me in danger, but merely reacted.

"Furthermore, I would like to enforce the mentality that riders should keep their hands on the handlebars and avoid pushing and pulling each other in a way that endangers their safety. We have recovered from this problem and like what we ...... We hope to have a hard race."

Van Rensburg finished second in the third stage the next day, while Rui Costa dropped out of the lead and is now in second place overall.