Fabian Barel has been given a 5 minute penalty for violating a Crankworx Events Inc. rule at the Enduro World Series race in Whistler 2013. The incident happened during training on Friday 9th of August 2013 for Sunday’s race.

Crankworx Events Inc. made the following statement earlier today regarding the incident.

Based on all of the evidence available and following both Fabien and his team’s cooperation, the Chief Of Course has assigned Fabien a 5 minute penalty that will be attached to his overall time in tomorrow’s event,” says  Crankworx General Manager and EWS Board Member Darren Kinnaird. “The EWS and Crankworx have worked tirelessly to ensure that we establish an ethos of fairness, mutual respect and equality between all competitors. Because of this, it is critical that we are diligent about enforcing our rules as effectively as we can. We would like to remind all athletes and teams to attend rider briefings and obey Crankworx Outside Assistance Regulations.

This penalty will make it virtually impossible for Fabien to gain this time back and be competitive in the race for the top steps of the podium tomorrow.

Outside assistance is specifically mentioned in the Course Book about this race issued to the riders via the Crankworx and Enduro World Series websites. Fabien has been given this penalty based on assistance given during training for the event on Friday 9th of August 2013.

Outside Assistance
No outside assistance or support is permitted. This includes using team staff/outside help to carry equipment around the
course or perform repairs during the race. The one exception is during the transition between Stages 4 and 5 – once
racers are back in the Whistler Village boundaries that are permitted to obtain technical / mechanical assistance.
No shuttling is permitted and will result in disqualification.

This is not the first time a rider has been given a penalty for a rule violation but this is the first time such a high profile rider has been handed a penalty based on in incident outside of racing.

UPDATE

We have been sent the following statement from Chris Ball, Enduro World Series Director that clarifies the reasoning behind Fabien’s penalty.

“Following a number of requests for information surrounding the five minute penalty issued to Fabien Barel in Crankworx Whistler we would like to clarify the situation. To avoid riders gaining an unfair advantage and to maintain the spirit of the race on the long liaison stages in the Whistler valley, Crankworx created a rule that outlined no outside assistance (including using a vehicle to assist) would be allowed during the event. This rule was further explained and clarified in a mandatory athlete’s breakfast scheduled on Friday morning and hosted by the Crankworx Whistler organisers. Rider’s who chose not to attend this briefing missed crucial information regarding course changes, details of shuttling and race specific information. We are not responsible for educating riders who choose to miss planned briefings. Following the submission of evidence by a number of sources and a discussion with Fabien where he cooperated fully, admitted to a lack of knowledge of the rule due to team communications and an admission of his use of a vehicle, the organisation chose to apply a five minute penalty to his race time, removing any advantage that may have been gained from his use of the vehicle. We are all now looking forward to an incredible race here tomorrow.

Regards, Chris Ball, Director, Enduro World Series”