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. »
