Michael Schär (AG2R Citroën Team) was disqualified from the Tour of Flanders after throwing a bidon towards a group of fans. The rider was off the back of the peloton with a second mechanical when the incident took place.
The AG2R rider tossed the bottle towards the side of the road but the UCI race officials deemed his move to have broken revised protocols in relation to littering.
Schär eventually made his way back to the peloton after a long chase and two bike changes but just as he made contact with the back of the field he was told by the race jury that he needed to pull over and stop racing.
The disqualification follows an update to the UCI rules, with the sport's governing body confirming earlier this year that riders could be fined, docked ranking points and penalised time if they throw objects such as bidons and waste in a careless or dangerous manner or outside of new litter zones.
The rules came into effect at the start of April and mean that riders can only dispose of litter at designated points in races or if they drop back towards their team cars and hand items over directly.
Within the specified rules riders can be fined and docked UCI points while 'for one-day races, in addition to the provisions above, elimination or disqualification.'
The news comes after Yevgeniy Fedorov (Astana-Premier Tech) and Otto Vergaerde (Alpecin Fenix) were both removed from the race after they were deemed to have raced dangerously.
