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ROVERETO, Italy (VN) — Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) was among six riders penalized for slipstreaming in Tuesday’s stage 16 time trial at the Giro d’Italia.

The UCI race jury handed down the penalties ranging from 20 seconds to two minutes that knocked down a few impressive rides.

Aru was slapped with a 20-second time penalty while UAE Team Emirates teammates Valerio Conti and Diego Ulissi were penalized two minutes. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Remi Cavagna (Quick-Step) and Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy) were penalized 30 seconds each.

“I respect the opinion of the jury, but I had no intention to take advantage,” Aru said. “I overtook some riders during the race on sections of the course where there motorcycles and vehicles. The jury decided to sanction me in a moment in which there was a car involuntarily a short distance in front of me.”

Aru surprised many Tuesday by posting a top-10 time trial ride the day after the rest day following struggles over the weekend in the mountains.

The UCI jury fined each of them 100 Swiss francs, citing the rule, “failing to respect regulation, distances and time gaps — slipstreaming.”

Quick-Step sport director Davide Bramati was also fined 1,000 Swiss francs for “following, leaning out of the vehicle.”

The jury also reported that 12 bikes were checked in technological fraud inspections.