Italian cyclist Giulio Ciccone publicly questioned the photo-finish decision that awarded Remco Evenepoel the European Championship title by a margin of 2.8 milliseconds, according to a report by Le Parisien. The Lidl-Trek rider finished second in the continental championship race in Belgium, prompting a detailed demand on social media for the exact timing imagery used by race officials.
Giulio Ciccone Challenges the European Championship Photo-Finish
The controversy centers on a razor-thin finish where Evenepoel captured the gold jersey by less than three-thousandths of a second. Ciccone published a lengthy statement on Instagram addressing the outcome. While acknowledging Evenepoel’s strength and status as a deserving champion, the Italian climber maintained that available television angles did not align with the final race classification.
“Remco was the strongest rider, who raced like a champion with an extraordinary performance, and my esteem for him is enormous and has never been questioned,” Ciccone wrote on Instagram.
“I have watched the available images hundreds of times and, in the sequences where the finish line is visible, I continue to see a dynamic that I do not see as coherent with the decision,” Ciccone added. He formally requested access to the official timing capture, noting that athletes deserve precise evidence when gold medals are decided by microscopic margins.
“I ask to see the photo-finish corresponding exactly to the real finish line. I would like to be able to see, unequivocally, the passage of our two wheels at the precise point where, according to the regulations, the finish is determined,” he stated.
Slit-Camera Technology Generates Continuous Temporal Images
A photo-finish image is not a single instantaneous snapshot of the entire scene. Instead, it is a continuous temporal representation generated by a slit-camera locked precisely onto the finish line.
Ciccone emphasized that his inquiry targets technical clarity rather than broadcast footage. “If this image confirms the verdict, there will be nothing more to add. But as long as this correspondence is not shown to me, it remains for me a question to which I have not yet received an answer,” the Italian concluded.
More on Giulio Ciccone
Keep reading
