INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe were denied a victory after a bizarre stage in the Volta ao Algarve.

Filippo Ganna crossed the line in first place for Ineos before the stage was cancelled.

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That is because of a crazy final kilometre which saw the majority of the peloton go off course as they followed the camera motorbikes instead of the correct route.

The confusion was made possible because the finish line was parallel to where the riders went, with just barriers separating the right and wrong track.

Ganna was one of a handful of riders who chose the correct route and he was able to power across the line first.

But his victory was later stripped away as race commissaires cancelled the stage and declared no winner, denying Ratcliffe and Ineos a win.

Volta ao Algarve race director Sergio Sousa explained that was because “truth did not prevail”.

A statement read: “The College of Commissaires interpreted the regulations and, given what happened, decided to cancel the stage because they considered that sporting truth did not prevail in the end.

“All the technical information was clear that the riders should go left at the last roundabout. The fact is that some of them took the right, in a lane parallel to the finish line.

“It was a wrong decision by the peloton but it’s clear that we didn’t do enough to avoid this outcome, which we very much regret.”

Some of the riders who took the wrong turn were forced to lift their bikes over the barriers to cross the finish line.

Stage ‘winner’ Ganna had little sympathy for his competitors, revealing he had previously been punished for taking a wrong turn.

He said: “Everyone took the wrong way, and I took the [correct] one.

“You need to know the rules, you need to know the parcours. It’s the rules for the riders. In the past, I’ve taken the wrong way during a Time Trial, and I lost the race.”