Sagan disqualified from Tour for Cavendish ‘elbow’
VITTEL, France: Worldchampion Peter Sagan was sensationally kicked off the Tour de France for elbowing Mark Cavendish in a hectic sprint finish to Tuesday’s fourth stage.
British sprint great Cavendish was taken to hospital by ambulance with shoulder and finger injuries after crashing to the ground when Sagan shoved him into the metal safety barriers 100 metres from the finish of the 207.5km stage from Mondorf-les-Bains to Vittel.
“We’ve decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the Tour de France 2017 as he endangered some of his colleagues seriously in the final metres of the sprint which happened in Vittel,” said the president of the race commission, Philippe Marien.
“We will apply article 12.104 of the rules of the UCI... in which case commissaires (the race jury) can decide to enforce a judgement to disqualify a rider.”
Cavendish had earlier demanded an explanation from Sagan for the elbow that could end the Briton’s Tour – he previously crashed out of the 2014 Tour with a broken collarbone.
“In terms of pain-wise, I’ve done my shoulder twice before and I’m in more pain now than I was for one of my shoulders – that doesn’t make me too optimistic, just on feeling, but I’m not a doctor,” he said.
Cavendish, 31, was following the wheel of eventual stage winner Arnaud Demare of France when Sagan jutted out an elbow, knocking the Briton into the barriers where he came crashing down to the ground.
The 30-time Tour stage winner was treated by medical staf f before crossing the finish line with a bloodied and bandaged hand.
When he left for hospital, he was also wearing a sling.
“I’m ok, I’m in a little bit of pain, I’ll go for some more tests now, we’ll see,” he told reporters.
Cavendish said he would start Wednesday’s fifth stage if to do so wouldn’t make his injuries “worse”. — AFP
PETER Sagan is an aggressive rider but he did not deserve to be disqualified from the Tour de France because he did not intentionally send Mark Cavendish crashing to the ground, three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond said on Tuesday.
World champion Sagan was kicked out of the race after elbowing his British rival off balance in a hectic sprint in the fourth stage, the race jury saying the Slovak wilfully obstructed Cavendish some 100 metres from the line.
“It is too harsh, I think”, American LeMond, who is on the Tour as an analyst for Eurosport, said in his daily chat with Reuters. “Some riders hold on to a car on the Tour and they are not kicked out.”
Overhead TV footage shows Sagan clearly elbowing Cavendish but LeMond, who won the Tour in 1986, 1989 and 1990, noted that some of the action could not be seen.
“There is a part of the overhead shot under a tree... You can’t tell if Cav’ tried to lean on him. However his (Sagan’s) response was way too severe,” he said.
“In a sprint, when you’re in front you try to close the door a little but sprints are very dangerous.”
Riders often reach 70 kph in a sprint and any change of line or contact can have dramatic consequences.
“What Sagan did was wrong but was it intentional? Did he purposely send Cavendish into the barriers? I don’t think so,” said LeMond.
“I don’t think Cav’ would want him out. It’s a loss for the Tour, Peter Sagan is not an angry person or a poor sportsman.”
LeMond explained that Sagan, not being a pure sprinter, was bound to make errors.
“He’s an aggressive rider, but he’s not a pure sprinter, he is trying to take wheels,” the American said, referring to the practice of jumping from wheel to wheel to benefit from the slipstream of the pure sprinters.
“He is a little wild and today he went over the line,” he added, saying that the Tour would miss a rider whose colourful character has been a breath of fresh air for the sport.
“It’s a loss for the Tour.” — Reuters