Sky woes continue as Moscon kicked out of Tour
TEAM Sky’s rough ride on the Tour de France continued when their Italian rider Gianni Moscon was thrown out of the race for hitting another rider during the 15th stage on Sunday.
“The jury kicked him (Moscon) out because he hit a rider from the (French) Fortuneo-Samsic team,” a senior official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
Sky have been largely unpopular in France since Briton Bradley Wiggins won the Tour in 2012 to start a period of domination during which they have won the race in five of the last six years.
Moscon, a one-day race specialist who is on the Tour as a domestique, was also accused of sending another rider crashing last year before being cleared of wrongdoing by the International Cycling Union (UCI).
“We support and accept the decision by the race organisers to exclude Gianni Moscon from the Tour de France,” Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford said in a statement.
“Gianni is desperately disappointed in his behaviour and knows that he has let himself, the Team and the race down.
“We will address this incident with Gianni once the Tour is complete and decide then if any further action should be taken.
“I would like to offer my sincere apologies to both Elie Gesbert and Team Fortuneo Samsic for this unacceptable incident.”
Moscon was suspended by Sky for six weeks for a racist slur against a French rider last year.