Bora-Hansgrohe’s Peter Sagan has been disqualified from the Tour de France for “seriously endangering” another cyclist, after sending Mark Cavendish into the barriers in the final sprint on stage four.
Bora-Hansgrohe’s Peter Sagan has been disqualified from the Tour de France for “seriously endangering” another cyclist, after sending Mark Cavendish into the barriers in the final sprint on stage four.
After the stage Sagan was initially given a 30 second penalty and deducted 80 points in the green jersey, but was then disqualified after the jury analysed the video of the incident.
“We’ve decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the Tour de France 2017 after the tumultuous sprint, here in Vittel, ” the race jury President Philippe Marien said. “He endangered multiple riders, Mark Cavendish and others who were implicated in the crash, in the final meters of the sprint.”
“We applied article 12.104, irregular sprints, in which case commissaires are allowed to enforce a judgement to disqualify a rider and amend a fine.”
Following the stage, Cavendish said he would need stitches in his finger and wasn’t optimistic about an injury to his shoulder. The 30-time stage winner said Sagan came across to apologise, but questioned the elbow.
” [I was] following Démare around and just Sagan came over, ” said Cavendish to reporters. “I get on with Peter well, but I don’t get… if he came across is one thing, but the elbow, I am not a fan of him putting his elbow in like that. Like i said I get on with Peter. A crash is a crash but I’d just like to know about that elbow really.”
Speaking to media, Sagan said that he had apologised to Cavendish but said he was unable to react to the incident.
“It is a sprint, ” Sagan said. “I didn’t know Mark was behind me. He was coming from the right side and I was trying to take the wheel of Kristoff, I think.
“I wanted to go on his wheel, but Mark was coming really fast from the back and I didn’t have time to react to go left. He just came to me and after to the fence.”
