Maverick Tour de France rider Peter Sagan went from hero to zero in 24 hours at Tuesday’s fourth stage of the Tour de France.
Winner of stage three, Sagan was disqualified after the 207.5-kilometre ride between Mondorf-les-Bains to Vittel after a late crash with Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka’s Mark Cavendish.
Cavendish went down heavily into the barriers on the right hand side of the finishing straight after colliding with BORA-hansgrohe’s Sagan.
Slovakia’s world champion, Sagan was initially hit with a 30-second time penalty and 80 points in the green jersey competition but a late review by the jury saw him disqualified.
There was also disappointment for Cavendish after X-Rays revealed a broken right shoulder, the same shoulder that he’d dislocated in the opening stage of the 2013 tour.
The BORA-hansgrohe team said late on Tuesday night that they had protested the disqualification and would release a statement before Wednesday’s fifth stage.
Before the drama, Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka had done a great job setting up Cavendish for the final sprint.
On paper, the 207.5 km from Mondorf-les-Bains to Vittel looked almost certain to end in a bunch sprint. Therefore, it was no surprise that most riders wanted to stay in the peloton when the flag dropped at the official start. In fact, only one rider, Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Wanty – Groupe Gobert), dared to attack and the peloton was more than happy to let him get a huge gap of over 13 minutes.
As the stage progressed the gap started to come down quickly and with 100km to go, only six minutes separated the pack from the lonely rider at the front. The distance continued to shorten towards the intermediate sprint and the following KOM sprint and with 15 km left, it was all back together again.
The Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka riders were all committed to put Cavendish in the best-possible position for the expected bunch sprint.
The team went to the front of the peloton in the final kilometres to make sure the Manxman was within striking distance. Unfortunately, Cavendish never got a chance to fight for the win.
Arnaud Démare (FDJ) took the stage win.
Team Dimension Data’s Edvald Boasson Hagen did well to finish in 11th place on the stage and moved up to fourth place in the general classification. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) still leads overall.
Read what other riders had to say on the disqualification
Said Cavendish on the the medical regarding his shoulder: ‘I’m obviously massively disappointed to get this news about the fracture. The team was incredible today. They executed to perfection what we wanted to do this morning. I feel I was in a good position to win and to lose that and even having to leave the Tour, a race I’ve built my whole career around, is really sad.
‘I wish the best of luck to my teammates for the rest of the race. Now, I’m looking forward to watching the race on TV, seeing the team fly the flag high for South Africa and raise awareness for Qhubeka’.
After four stages, best-placed South African is two-time Olympian Daryl Impey the Orica-Scott rider sitting in 19th spot (45sec behind) on the General Classification, then it’s his fellow Rio Olympian Louis Meintjes in 42nd spot for UAE Team Emirates, 1:12 back.
Then it’s Reinardt Janse van Rensburg of Dimension Data (52nd, 1:35) and teammate Jaco Venter (169th, 10:12).
In the team standings, Team Sky lead with Dimension Date in 11th (2:36 back).
Wednesday’s stage is 160.5km between Vittel and La Planchede Belles Filles and features the first category one climb of the race, the Planchede Belle Filles climb. Tactics will be vital with a narrow, winding road taking the tour to the bottom of the climb.
