24 riders have been disqualified from the U23 Giro d'Italia after they were caught on video hanging on to cars and motorbikes during the ascent of the Passo dello Stelvio on stage 4.
Johannes Staune-Mittet (Jumbo-Visma Development Team) won Wednesday's 119km stage to take over the race lead with four days to go, but further down the mountain, numerous riders resorted to rule-breaking methods to make their way to the top.
Riders from 15 of the 35 teams in the race, this year rebranded as the Giro Next Gen, were caught hitching rides to the top of the famous climb, with some seen clutching onto race motorbikes while video footage showed a cluster of riders holding onto the team car of Italian squad ASD GC Sissio.
The team lost four riders from their five-man squad through disqualification, while fellow Italian teams Ciclista Rostese and Technipes #inEmiliaRomagna saw three riders apiece turfed out of the race.
Elsewhere, the development squads of pro teams Groupama-FDJ, Lotto-Dstny, Team DSM, and Q36.5 all saw one of their riders disqualified from the race.
Paris-Roubaix U23 winner Tijl De Decker (Lotto-Dstny) was among them, with his team addressing the episode on Twitter: "Tijl De Decker won't start today. Well, due to a youthful sin he won't be committing again."
All 24 riders involved finished between 23:56 and 29:01 down on Staune-Mittet, well inside the time cut on the stage of 37:13. 143 riders from the 175 starters are set to roll out on Thursday's hilly fifth stage to Manerba del Garda.
Under UCI regulations, four team staff members were also disqualified with their cars taken off the race, while all riders involved will receive a 100CHF fine and a 25-UCI point penalty in addition to their disqualification.
