Italian cycling star Vincenzo Nibali is under fire after he blamed Australian young gun Caleb Ewan for a crash during stage two of the Vuelta a Espana.
Brian Nygaard, the media manager for Ewan's Australian team Orica-GreenEDGE, said Nibali had his facts wrong.
Ewan's manager Jason Bakker added Nibali was not acting like a champion by targeting the young rider.
Vuelta organisers disqualified Nibali, last year's Tour de France champion, when it emerged an Astana team car had towed him briefly during the second stage.
That incident happened soon after the mass pile-up.
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According to the cyclingnews website, Nibali has angrily blamed Ewan, who is making his Grand Tour debut.
"The crash was the fault of Caleb Ewan who did a crazy, aggressive move," Nibali was quoted as telling Italian newspaper Gazzetta della Sport.
"Look at the video and you can understand why riders got hurt.
"Yet he's still in the race ... I went looking for him while I was waiting for a new bike but fortunately for him he'd already got going.
"I wanted to speak to him."
That prompted an equally-strong reaction from Nygaard.
"Nibali: you not only got the rules wrong, but also the facts," Nygaard posted on Twitter.
"Caleb Ewan was at the back when it happened.
"He did not cause the crash."
Bakker also blasted Nibali for his comments.
"Champions act as champions on and off the bike. Targeting a young rider in this manner is not the style of a champion," Bakker tweeted.
According to the cyclingnews website, Nibali went on Facebook to apologise for his disqualification.
But Nibali said he deserved a time penalty for the tow, which lasted about 100m, rather than disqualification.
Fellow Australian rider David Tanner is out of the Vuelta after he was involved in the crash.
The IAM Cycling team said in a media release that Tanner suffered multiple abrasions and bruises, but not hip or pelvis fracture.
"We were worried, but in the end, I didn't break anything and that is what is most important," Tanner said.
