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news
Sagan Cavendish TdF 2017 Stage 4 crash.JPGUCI and Peter Sagan end dispute, agree Tour de France crash with Cavendish wasn't deliberate
The UCI, Peter Sagan and BORA–Hansgrohe have brought to an end the legal dispute about Sagan’s disqualification from this year’s Tour de France. All parties have agreed that the crash was “an unfortunate and unintentional race incident” and not deliberate.
Sagan and the management company of his Bora-Hanshgrohe team had been due to face the UCI at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) today in a bid to have the triple world champion’s disqualification from this year’s Tour de France overturned.
However, in advance of the hearing, video footage that was not available at the time when the race jury made its decision was viewed and the parties agreed not to continue with the legal proceedings and to instead focus on positive steps that could be taken in the future.
The new President of the UCI, David Lappartient, said that after reviewing the incident, 2018 World Tour races would make use of a video specialist.
“These proceedings have shown how important and arduous the work of the UCI Commissaires is. As of next season the UCI intends to engage a ‘Support Commissaire’ to assist the Commissaires Panel with special video expertise on the main events of the UCI World Tour.”
Sagan commented: “The past is already forgotten. It’s all about improving our sport in the future. I welcome the fact that what happened to me in Vittel has showed that the UCI Commissaires’ work is a difficult one and that the UCI has recognised the need to facilitate their work in a more effective way. I am happy that my case will lead to positive developments, because it is important for our sport to make fair and comprehensible decisions, even if emotions are sometimes heated up.”
BORA–Hansgrohe team manager Ralph Denk added: “It has always been our goal to make clear that Peter had not caused Mark Cavendish’s fall. This was Peter’s position from day one. No one wants riders to fall or get hurt but the incident in Vittel was a race accident as can happen in the course of a sprint. My job as a team manager is to protect my riders and sponsors. I think that this is what we, as a team, have done. I am reinforced in my view that neither Peter nor BORA–Hansgrohe have made any mistakes.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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19 comments
"additional" video evidence from where? a spectator? a TV crew that only recently remembered it had some spanking close up footage of a pivotal moment in the race left on the memory card of it's camera? another helicopter flying over that just happened to have an HD video recording kit with a massive zoom lens on it?....
Loving Sagan's prepared statement though, bless him - "especially the bit about "fair and comprehensible decisions", which many TdF decisions are seemingly not. Delivered through gritted teeth no doubt.
I would imagine he basically wanted to say "It was a high pressure race situation throwing a bike along at 40 mph+ with a hundred other guys - stuff is going to go wrong sometimes!! People will crash!! That is the inherent risk we all take as pros!! Soz, everyone, but some days you are the pigeon, some days you are the statue..."
Its always someone's fault... be it the rider, course designer, whatever.
In this case it was Sagan's fault.
What was disputable was intent. Quite rightly, both parties have agreed that after further reflection there was no intent. At the time, the elbow was seen as very damming, however it came to light that the elbow never made contact, so was not the reason for the crash. Had it done so, then Sagan got off very lightely you could say.
However, Sagan took a line that wasn't open to him. That in itself is no big deal, thats part of racing and someting all racers do. The problem was, there was no other line available for the other party (cavendish) to take, which meant that Sagan's actions would always have caused a crash.
Any one believing that Sagan didn't know Cavendish was there is being a little naive. From personal experience of racing to a relatively high level, you know exactly what is going on around you in these sprints. The sound of another rider traveling at nearly 40mph, hell the way the air is disturbed... it all paints a fairly clear picture to a rider.
But lets give him the benefit of the doubt, he didn't know Cavendish was there, or he didn't realise the gap between him and the barrier was so small, so it was an unintentional racing incident... that Sagan caused.
Cavendish tryed to headbut another rider failed spectacularly and then fell over...
Sagan is vindicated, shame it cost Sagan another Jersey.
Unbelievable!!
Sagan should have a better decision on his favour.
It wasn`t a good agreement!
I saw the video that shows why Cav crashed and it wasn`t due to Peter, that for sure!
This and other decisions in the Tour by the commissairs and the org were very bad and let`s hope the coming future we shouldn`t see any misjudgement decision by them.
Hope not... for the riders safe and justice!
?????????????????????????????
Riders, even great ones like Sagan can make mistakes you know, not everything is a conspiracy.
that's what they want you to believe.
In summary:
The French race jury managed not to notice the French Champion wearing French Champion colours take Bouhanni's wheel from under him - after all Nacer has plenty of previous - and decided to deflect attention by chucking Sagan out instead.
So the UCI will now use video evidence for what exactly? Turning a blind eye to French cyclists taking water too late into a summit finish, or just to analyse crashes?
Hahaha, so Sagan is still found out as riding recklessly endangering another rider and the ruling stood as a DQ! That he and his legal team backed down is a clear sign that he had nowhere to go, unlike his idiotic and reckless cycling in which he had plenty of space to go somewhere and that wasn't into MC.
As for BH claiming that PS didn't cause Cavendish to crash, that is patently bullshit, the UCI did not say that at all, they said it wasn't deliberate, massively different, otherwise their legal team would have gone to town for recompense, formal apologies etc etc, as it is now and as it was then, Sagan was clearly at fault, they can fluff it up as much as they like but he had ample time to move back across to follow the rider he himself said he was following.
Yawn.
"All parties have agreed that the crash was “an unfortunate and unintentional race incident” and not deliberate".
YAWN, so reckless and dangerous and/or poor bike handling and awareness hence the DQ still stands which is what the Bora Hans legal team were fighting to be changed and backled down over and which is what I said. You don't read very well do you sonshine!
What's "backled down"? And what the hell is a "sonshine"?
Let's face it; you don't like Sagan because he's foreign and this plays into your Brexit loving narrative that all folk from the Continent are evil. Sonshine.
The eyes in the back of his head were obscured by his dangerous helmet...
Just lol, you don't know much about much do you! I guess these pros are completely blinded all the time and have zero situational awareness or responsibility in a race.
As one of the supposed best bike handlers in the pro ranks he's given many plaudits and rightly so, this time he stuffed up and stuffed up badly, his line was nowhere near demare's wheel, he kept going over to the right even after demare had moved back to the left, this is obvious.
The fact is he was going backwards compared to everyone else, fact is he has a responsibility to not needlessly crowd out a fellow competitor in such a way that can and does cause a crash, especially given what we and they know when it comes to being so close to barriers/edge of the road. he had chance to change his line to follow Demare which is who he said he was following, he didn't and that's the primary reason why the crash happened, he was rightly DQ and the blame is on him, the UCI have not changed their view on this and BH despite their claims that he is not at fault they have backed down with their legal team to try to get the DQ removed because he is at fault.
You need to take your helmet off sonny, it's blinding you from facts yet again!
You clearly dislike Sagan but on this occasion it was not his fault, it was a racing incident which happens all the time when a bunch of guys trying to win a sprint.
Any money paid to bora or sagan along with the words from the uci?
A very gracious response from the World Champ and his team I feel. Makes me wonder what deal has been done behind the scenes...
"However, in advance of the hearing, video footage that was not available at the time when the race jury made its decision was viewed"
Eeeeerrrrrr what? Unless they used public supplied images then they are incompetent of making a rushed decision. What video footage was not available at the time?
from what i have read on other pages, it was rider footage that helped, the uci didnt get it till days after