A Vuelta rider said he saw Team Sky filming the AG2R-La Mondiale riders taking this controversial tow off their team vehicle on a climb. The riders have been removed from the race after video of what they did began circulating on social media.

Team Sky made video of AG2R riders towing – claim

Media reports in France have suggested it was Team Sky personnel who recorded two AG2R-La Mondiale riders towing off team car at La Vuelta.

The video was recorded on stage 15. It was supplied to a journalist who shared it on Twitter. And the French team decided to take the two rides involved out of the race.

Scott O’Raw, the journalist who first shared it on Twitter, said the video had come from a trusted source who he preferred not to name.

However, French newspaper L’Equipe has reported the clip was recorded by somebody in a Team Sky vehicle.

The newspaper says it has spoken to a rider who was in the group with the two AG2R-La Mondiale cyclists as they held onto the team car going up a climb.

And that rider, who is not named by L’Equipe, has told the French newspaper when he looked behind him he saw Team Sky recording what was going on.

“We were behind the AG2R car and we saw the people from Sky filming the scene,” the Vuelta rider is reported as having told L’Equipe.

The rider, said to be French, then added: “With what Sky and Froome do on social media, it’s fair and square.”

It was clear from the clip that the team car and riders were from AG2R-La Mondiale.

The team has said it was Alexandre Geniez and Nico Denz. And it has taken them out of the race.

Both finished in a large group some 26:09 down on Sunday’s queen stage of the race, when the images were recorded.

The clip, below, appears to have been recorded from inside another vehicle on the race.