Zingle Disqualified From E3 Saxo Classic After Viral Sticky Bottle Video — Visma Apologise
Visma-Lease a Bike rider Axel Zingle was disqualified from the 2026 E3 Saxo Classic on Friday after a video taken by a roadside spectator captured him being towed back into the peloton by his team car following a puncture — in what became one of the most embarrassingly blatant sticky bottle incidents in recent memory. The footage, posted to social media and shared tens of thousands of times within hours, showed Zingle holding on for an extended period while the Visma car accelerated, propelling him back towards the main field at speed.
The incident occurred after Zingle suffered a puncture during the race. The French rider was chasing back on when he took hold of — or was handed — a bidon by the car's occupant. What followed was not the brief, barely-concealed "sticky bottle" that has long been part of cycling's grey area, but a prolonged and highly visible tow that covered a significant distance. The video clip left no room for ambiguity: race commissaires pulled Zingle from the race before the finish and removed him from the results entirely.
As the race reached its conclusion — where Mathieu van der Poel completed a remarkable hat-trick with a 42km solo — the fallout from the Zingle incident was rapidly gathering pace on social media. The consequence of a disqualification was swiftly followed by further punishments: Zingle was issued a yellow card under the UCI's disciplinary framework and received a deduction of 100 UCI ranking points, a penalty that will have tangible implications for his season programme. Crucially, it also emerged that Richard Plugge — the Visma-Lease a Bike team principal, who had been at the wheel of the following car — had been behind the extended sticky bottle. Plugge received his own yellow card and a fine of 500 Swiss francs from the race jury.
The symmetry of a team boss being personally sanctioned for an infraction his own team car facilitated gave the story an additional layer of embarrassment for the squad. Visma are among the most closely scrutinised teams in the peloton, and the optics of Plugge being held personally accountable struck a nerve within the cycling community. The team wasted little time in issuing an apology. "We regret the incident and accept blame," a team statement read. "This does not contribute to the image of cycling. It happened in the background after a puncture and did not affect the race outcome, but it should not have happened."
The incident has reignited debate about the sticky bottle and the broader culture of marginal rule-bending in professional cycling. Fans and commentators were quick to note that the Zingle tow was not the subtle, deniable kind that has long been tolerated as part of the sport's informal customs, but something altogether more brazen — carried out in full view of the roadside public and captured in high definition on a mobile phone. It underscores how the proliferation of smartphones and cycling fans lining the route has fundamentally changed what commissaires can act on, even if they do not personally witness an infringement on the road.
The UCI's yellow card system, introduced in recent seasons as a tool for accumulating punishments, means the sanction carries consequences beyond this single race. If Zingle accumulates enough yellow cards within a set period, he faces a race suspension. The loss of 100 ranking points is also meaningful in the context of a sport where those points determine entry to top-tier events. For Visma-Lease a Bike, the incident arrives at a delicate moment: the team are building towards the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix with Wout van Aert as their headline leader, and the last thing the squad needed was a reputational distraction in the final days before Easter Sunday's Monument showdown.
For a sport that has spent decades rebuilding credibility after its doping scandals, incidents like this remain a reminder that cheating — however minor relative to those historic controversies — retains the power to capture public attention and damage team reputations in the social media age. The viral spread of the Zingle video suggests that spectator cameras now function as an informal layer of race governance, catching what the official broadcast and commissaire vehicles inevitably miss. Whether the UCI will use this case to tighten regulations around team car conduct more broadly remains to be seen.