Francesco Reda appeared to have held onto his yellow jersey after finishing in the lead group in Tipperary but was thrown out of the race by the judges for receiving ‘irregular assistance’.

This assistance involved holding on to his team’s car while returning from a puncture, despite being warned by officials not to do so.

And the Italian didn’t hold back his opinion of the race commissaire on Twitter:

Francesco Reda's reaction to being DQ'd from the Rás. His tweet has since been deleted. pic.twitter.com/YTKv4JURfL

— Cillian Kelly (@irishpeloton) May 18, 2015

A retweet about the incident remains on Reda’s page, however:

Which means (according to the infallible Google Translate):

“The fish stinks from the head. It must be frustrating to fight against those who pull the strings like a puppeteer .”

Former Leeds United footballer Bryan McCrystal lead for most of the day but the stage victory went to New Zealand’s Aaron Gate.

As for Reda, hopefully he will be far from the smell of sheep and fish on his flight home.