The Official 104th Tour de France thread

[Stat Brother]

Looks like Cav might be able to continue. Greipel actually looks like the rider who causes the drift toward the barrier, his rear wheel slides, they all start going right, space for Cav disappears.:

Greipel may have been helped on his way by Bouhani.

Loving Boardman & Co's initial reaction.

'Well Peter's a decent bloke so let's not apportion blame too soon'.
'Let's not forget Boohoo was right in the mix and he's got previous'.

My kind of analysis.

I think we might even have got a trademark 'bar slap!

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Look at the video from above. Absolutely terrible from Peter Sagan. Jesus...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoPia3bbC4o

 

[Bold Seagull]

I think I'm agreeing with David Miller's assessment, in slow-mo Sagan's elbow looks bad, but in reality I think it is a reaction to him having to drift right due to Bouhani and Griepel drifting the whole bunch right, then Sagan too late realising Cavendish was coming up and he needed to adjest back to the left. Real time that is all happening very quickly. Top view does look bad though...

 

[Stat Brother]

Look at the video from above. Absolutely terrible from Peter Sagan. Jesus...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoPia3bbC4o

I'm 90% sure the helicopter shot needs to be about 3 seconds longer.
I'm not going to fully commit but I think the chain of events started earlier than that pretty damning footage.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I'm 90% sure the helicopter shot needs to be about 3 seconds longer.
I'm not going to fully commit but I think the chain of events started earlier than that pretty damning footage.

And had that crash not occurred, we might have been talking about Damare's drift right to left cutting across everyone for him to finish with the win...

 

[Stat Brother]

And had that crash not occurred, we might have been talking about Damare's drift right to left cutting across everyone for him to finish with the win...

In fairness DeMare finished on the line he started on, it's just in between time he all but touched the barrier on the opposite side of the road.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I'm 90% sure the helicopter shot needs to be about 3 seconds longer.
I'm not going to fully commit but I think the chain of events started earlier than that pretty damning footage.

You're possibly right. I am a big fan of Sagan, and find it odd for him to do something like that...but his 'elbow' looks like a NFL bodycheck.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Reports suggest that Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka management asking officials to eliminate Peter Sagan from #TdF2017. Mark Cavendish - "Doesn't look good (for Cavendish continuing). I get on with Peter, but I'm not a fan of him putting his elbow out like that."

 

[nickbrighton]

Reports suggest that Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka management asking officials to eliminate Peter Sagan from #TdF2017. Mark Cavendish - "Doesn't look good (for Cavendish continuing). I get on with Peter, but I'm not a fan of him putting his elbow out like that."

I cant see Sagan's name on any of the classifications on the official tour de France website- has he been removed?

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2017/us/stage-4/classifications.html

ok m-I'm going blind, but he is down at 15th in the GC and 23rd in the points- whereas after the stage he was second in GC, anyone know whats happened?

 

[Pantani]

It is not good from Sagan, think we may seem him DQ'd from the race. Full speed or slow motion it looks really bad to me. You cannot take your hands off the bars to block people, that is not a natural reaction.

 

[Jeep]

It is not good from Sagan, think we may seem him DQ'd from the race. Full speed or slow motion it looks really bad to me. You cannot take your hands off the bars to block people, that is not a natural reaction.

Oh my days. I feel the need to email to race director explaining how Sagan is in my fantasy team and I enjoy watching him race and..

 

[Jeep]

Copied from Guardian website:
"For playing fast and loose with his elbow, Peter Sagan has been given a 30-second penalty and demoted to 115th place on the stage (presumably last of the main finishing bunch).

A slap on the wrist for a flick of the elbow, you could say. A points deduction might have been more appropriate, as 30 seconds doesn’t amount to a hill of beans one way or the other for Sagan. That said, he will lose the points he earned for finishing second behind Arnaud Demare."

 

[Stat Brother]

It is not good from Sagan, think we may seem him DQ'd from the race. Full speed or slow motion it looks really bad to me. You cannot take your hands off the bars to block people, that is not a natural reaction.

Ohhhh someone wants to win Fantasy!!

But you're right Sagan has gone.

I guess there wasn't anything just before the incident...



..I tried Pete.


[tweet]882283734728417280[/tweet]

 

[Wardy]

Sagan is a good rider. However, he gets where he does by wheel jumping. Instead of picking a wheel and sticking to it he kind of jumps up the pack jumping from wheel to wheel. Disqualification may seem a little harsh but he needs to learn that he cannot act in the way he did today and get off with little or no punishment.

 

[Postman Pat]

Don't think Sagan can complain, endangered another rider and has to go. No reason to put his elbow out and must have known Cav was there.

 

[Stat Brother]

You certainly can't say Le Tour isn't prepared to make the big decisions.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I'm sad to see him out of the race...but he fully deserved to be excluded, in my opinion. And well done those who made that momentous decision.

Who'll win Green now?

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

2 major riders out in the first 4 days...can I just have the lanterne rouge now please!

 

[Stat Brother]

It's still my kneejerk reaction, i'll catch up with the highlights after bedtimes, but I do kind of agree with Jensie:-

[tweet]882298487769108480[/tweet]

That sprint was a mess, from start to finish.
Demare was all over the place, I don't yet know why Greipel went sideways, and Boo-Hoo was there too, so he must be to blame for something.

 

[Weststander]

How dumb by Sagan, in full view of an array of cameras from every angle.

Brave of the tour management to kick out the star, as his deliberate act was incredibly dangerous.