DRAMA AT TOUR DE FRANCE: Cycling’s most popular rider, Peter Sagan, kicked off race after crash; sport’s greatest sprinter, Mark Cavendish, forced to withdraw

VITTEL, France – Peter Sagan on Tuesday was kicked out of the Tour de France after he was involved in a crash that sent Mark Cavendish flying into a crowd barrier and onto the ground.

Update: Mark Cavendish was forced to withdraw from the Tour with a broken shoulder. Sagan’s Bora-Hansgrohe team is protesting the ruling that disqualified him from the race.

It happened on Tuesday after double road world champion Sagan was involved in a nasty high-speed crash on the race’s fourth stage that sent Cavendish into the crowd barriers and onto the ground at high speed.

The official announcement by the Tour jury came just after 7 p.m. local time, about an hour and a half after the stage finished. Cavendish was taken to the hospital, AFP reported.

“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 judgment to disqualify a rider.”

It all happened after a quiet day of racing that eventually saw the sprinters’ teams setting up their fast men for the finale. As the leaders raced for the line at speeds approaching 40 mph, Cavendish tried to come around Sagan but appeared to be knocked into the barriers and onto the ground.

Social media blew up on the news that Sagan was being disqualified from the race as he’s the most popular rider in the pro peloton. Some, including former pro cycling sprinters, didn’t see wrong in his actions.

To make matters worse, two trailing riders could not avoid Cavendish and went over the fallen rider as Frenchman Arnaud Démare crossed the line first to win his first-ever stage at the Tour.

But Cavendish said Sagan had to explain his actions, AFP reported.

“I was just following Demare round and then Sagan just came over,” he said. “I get on with Peter well but I don’t get it. If he came across it’s one thing, but the elbow? I’m not a fan of him putting his elbow in like that. I get on with Peter a crash is a crash, but I’d just like to know about the elbow.”

AFP reported that Cavendish’s sports director at Dimension Data, Roger Hammond, told journalists: “If I was Sagan, I’d apologize for that.” Fellow sprinter Andre Greipel of Germany accused Sagan of doing the same thing to him the previous day.

Greipel’s Lotto-Soudal team manager Marc Sergeant told Eurosport. “Yesterday it was the same thing in the intermediate sprint he gave an elbow to Andre.”

Sagan won the past two road world championships and is widely regarded as the most talented rider of his generation who can win many kinds of races. He is immensely popular as a cycling star and is a multiple Tour-stage winner and five-time winner of the Tour’s green jersey, which is awarded to the race’s most consistent daily finisher.

Cavendish has won the second highest number of stages in the Tour – 30 so far. Belgian legend Eddy Merckx has won 34. “Cav” is considered to be one of the sport’s greatest sprinters.

Here’s Sagan’s team’s statement:

“The UCI World Champion Peter Sagan was disqualified today, according to article 12.1.040/ 10.2.2. (irregular sprint) in the result/communiqué. The team disagrees with the decision and protested it officially.

“Peter Sagan rejected to have caused, or in any way intended to cause the crash of Mark Cavendish on the final 200m of the stage. Peter stayed on his line in the sprint and could not see Cavendish on the right side.

“The team applied for a redress of Peter Sagan’s result in stage 4.

“In the sprint I didn’t know that Mark Cavendish was behind me. He was coming from the right side, and I was trying to go on Kristoff’s wheel. Mark was coming really fast from the back and I just didn’t have time to react and to go left. He came into me and he went into the fence. When I was told after the finish that Mark had crashed, I went straight away to find out how he was doing. We are friends and colleagues in the peloton and crashes like that are never nice. I hope Mark recovers soon.” -Peter Sagan, UCI World Champion