It is official; Peter Sagan is disqualified from Tour de France after causing crash on the fourth stage during the last, sprint segment.
World champion and one of the best riders today, is now sent home after getting disqualified from the Tour de France 2017. He was declared guilty for causing a horrifying crash in Vittel.
World champion Peter Sagan has been disqualified from the Tour de France for causing the crash on stage four involving Mark Cavendish
— Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) July 4, 2017
Race jury was the one to make this news and the decision public. They arranged a press conference in the medical center two hours after the fourth stage finished. Arnaud Demare was the stage winner. However, it was the crash which took place during the final kilometers the one thing that took all the attention on the yesterday’s stage.
Even though Peter Sagan was able to finish the yesterday’s race in second place, and was initially docked around 30 seconds and 80 points during the Green Jersey competition, the race jury found the decision to be well-deserved.
“We’ve decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the Tour de France 2017 after the tumultuous sprint, here in Vittel. He endangered multiple riders, Mark Cavendish and others implicated in the crash, in the final meters of the sprint,” – an official of the jury announced on the press conference.
Official statement from @letour disqualifying @petosagan #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/xuKnahiJGr
— NBCSN Cycling (@NBCSNCycling) July 4, 2017
How it happened?
It all started when Cavendish attempted to pass on Sagan’s right, near the barriers. At that moment, Sagan decided to move his right elbow causing the Dimension Data to move off his line and crash into the barriers at a very high speed.
After Cavendish fell on the ground, he was then quickly hit by Ben Swift and John Degenkolb who were also involved in the incident.
Immediately after the stage finished, Sagan rode towards the Dimension Data area and apologized for causing the crash.
When asked about the incident, Cavendish said: “I get on with Peter well. But if he came across that’s one thing. But the elbow, I’m not a fan of him putting his elbow in me like that. Like I said, I get on with Peter. A crash is a crash but I just need to know about the elbow really.”
However, even though Sagan seemed to feel bad about causing the incident asking for forgiveness, he admitted to not agree with the decision jury took against him.
“What can I do? I can just accept the decision of the jury. But for sure I don’t agree with them because I think I didn’t do something wrong in the sprint”- said Sagan.
