The race jury disqualified Lotta Hentala, who was allegedly clinging to the team car in Blagnac on stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift. AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep director sportif Servais Naven, who was driving the team car at the time, was also excluded from the race.

"Due to an accident during today's stage, Lotta Hentala has been disqualified from the Tour de France Femme. Our DS, Servais Knaven, has also been disqualified," the team announced on Friday.

Hentala enters the Tour de France Femme as one of the favorites to win the sprint stage, with her teammate Ashley Moolman-Pasio in second place overall behind Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx).

Stage 6 of the Tour de France Femme, 122.1 km from Albi to Blagnac, was a stage for sprinters.

Hentala was separated from the peloton on the Côte de Puyserci (1.9 km, average gradient 6%) with 71 km to go, and continued to lose time on the Côte du Clos Ploutier (2.8 km, gradient 4.8%) with 64 km to go.

FranceTV reported that Hentala was disqualified for clinging to the team car, which was later confirmed by the Tour de France femme organizers.

"Lotta Hentala (AG Insurance-Soudal-Quick Step) has been excluded from the race," organizers confirmed on the official event website and social media.

On Saturday morning, the team released a statement explaining the incident. Lotta Häntära suffered from illness and fatigue on stage 6 of the Tour de France and was eliminated from the main peloton. The second car, driven by DS Servais Navene, had to pull back to support her throughout the stage."

"During the race, the bidon was handed to Lotta, and Lotta and Servais held onto it for 10 seconds, giving Lotta a brief respite. Both regret and understand that the event was out of the spirit of the race."

"The race was not a race.

However, the team strongly opposed the decision of the race jury that disqualified the rider and Director Sportif.

"AG Insurance - Soudal Quickstep, Servais and Lotta condemn the suggestion that they allowed Lotta to hang on to the machine for a long time - this was the charge levied against them by the Race Review Board, which led to Lotta and Servais' disqualification from the race.

"We expressed our disappointment with the race committee members and noted the unfairness of their actions and the damage to the reputation of Lotta, Servais, and the AG Insurance-Soudal Quick Step team.

The disqualification came hours after the UCI announced that SD Works team manager Danny Stamm had been excluded from the Tour de France before stage 6.

The UCI in this case imposed a 20-second time penalty for Stamm's dangerous driving when he overtook other cars and riders while recovering Demi Vollaring from a puncture on stage 5.