Way is clear for Kittel as Sagan ban appeal fails
THERE was a moment yesterday when one began to imagine Peter Sagan at a junction on his bike, ready and poised to rejoin the Tour de France.
Perhaps the Slovakian was waiting a mile or so from the finish of Stage Six on a giant Evel Knievel gyro launcher, giving him just enough time to contest another sprint.
As it was, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected Sagan’s appeal against his disqualification some 45 minutes before the riders rolled into Troyes and Marcel Kittel emerged, once again, as the fastest finisher in the peloton.
By then Sagan had presumably removed his helmet and ordered a taxi to the nearest airport, having been forced to concede that there will be no coming back from the crash that also brought Mark Cavendish’s Tour to a painful end.
In fairness to Sagan and his Bora- Hansgrohe team, they lodged their appeal on Wednesday morning with an ‘ urgent motion to suspend the decision of the Commissaires Panel’ and so allow him to participate in the fifth stage.
The team press officer, Ralph Scherzer, told Cycling
Tips: ‘Peter was ready to race. He was not far away. We just hid him a little to give him some quiet time, but he was there. CAS unfortunately didn’t decide before the start.’
A race jury decision that has divided opinion, even among sprinters in the peloton, is one with which Sagan and his employers continue to disagree. ‘The team and Peter Sagan would like to reiterate their positon that Peter Sagan did not cause, let alone deliberately, the fall of Mark Cavendish,’ they insisted.
CAS clearly spotted the same elbow as the race jury and that would now appear to be that when it comes to Sagan and this Tour.
In truth, he would have struggled to find a way past Kittel on a flatter finish yesterday, although he might have noted with interest the way Arnaud Demare seemingly using his head to battle his way past a couple of opponents on the way to second place.
He did not make contact with the same success or conviction as Mark Renshaw in 2010 — an incident that led to his disqualification — but as he took a similar line to Cavendish along the railings, Alexander Kristoff certainly appeared to object.
Whether that leads to sanctions remains to be seen, but aside from a parasol blowing into the road, it was an uneventful day’s racing that saw Chris Froome remain in possession of the yellow jersey.
Froome was thankful it had not caused an accident.
‘One minute you’re cruising along and the next there’s a massive parasol rolling in front of you,’ said the threetimes Tour champion. ‘But that’s the nature of the Tour.’