Tour de France 2017

Looked to me that cav leaned in to him as the hole he was trying to squeeze through was closing up fast. Sagan will have had to lean back or go down. The elbow seemed to come out after cav was already on a way one trip to the deck and was probably a reaction to his frustration that they'd collided/a balancing necessity. In essence the real question is did Sagan have space to his left or was he forced to squeeze cav like that. If he didn't need to squeeze him into the barriers then maybe the ban is fair. I think the elbow is a red herring as it was over by then. Just my view.

It will be a lesser tdf without Sagan though. Cav too of course.

Especially considering the amount of flat stages.

Does anyone know whether than can be appealed? Or it is just done now.

Here it looks more like Cav headbutted Sagan and bounced off him

https://twitter.com/mathot/status/882265676903272448

Cav definitely leaned into him. That's how I saw it. But he doesn't have a great deal of choice with the barrier fast approaching.

I think Sagan did two or three mistakes in a row.
As I watch at the overhead video, Greipel and Buchanni bump each other in front of Demare.
Demare moves to the right and so does Sagan who tries to follow Demare.
But Sagan's move is very harsh and he completely changes his line. At that moment Cav is coming furiously from the right.
As Cav realizes that the path he tried to follow, closes, he yells to Sagan (you can see it from the front camera).
As they are about to touch, Sagan blatantly raises the elbow and pushes Cav to the right.

I was working so missed the rare and mythical event of someone out-dicking Cav.

That deserves a jersey in itself, probably purple.

In which case the DQ is correct. Only saw the overhead once on itv4 so missed the detail.

https://streamable.com/j7gqb

I went for a bike ride this afternoon so missed everything. But I must have cycled further than I thought as I saw one sky rider and three people in the yellow jersey!

(Dude in sky jersey only cyclist not to nod all day. #justsaying)

Go back a couple of seconds.
Sagan had another line. He suddenly moved to the right.
Cav was doomed, when he tried to react.

Elbow was the least.....

Speech bubble bullshit. Typical curating, missing all the evidence up to that point, not least that he's leaning into the guy as the elbow is flicked into his face. I give it a solid C- for effort.

That's true. I just think DQ is way too hard because there was no intention from Sagan.
He just tried to stay on the wheel of Demare.

elbow is flicked into his face

That never happened

I hear the Slovakian national Ice Hockey team are scouting....

"Cav is already falling down" moment, is him bouncing off the elbow.

Sagan elbow was more than likely stuck out to keep himself centred and balanced. Look at his body as his elbow sticks out, it way over to the right of his bike. Check the screen shot, you can see his left knee sticking out as well to keep himself upright. I don't think the elbow was intentional, unless he wanted to make it look like he was losing his balance? #saganwasaninsidejob

However, he more than certainly caused Cavendish to crash hard in to the barriers, whether he meant it or not.

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Cav was the second victim of Sagan's errors today. He caused the earlier stack with 1.5kms to go. In the final though he went towards the barrier closing the door on Cav and that's what got him chucked out, sad, but inevitable I reckon.

Sagan's exit is a great loss to the Tour. But, still, I can't help wonder - what about the beach house? Will we ever know?

For reals? Ohhhhhh...

@WillMelling thought I was the only one.

Really sad to see Sagan being thrown out of the tour, extremely harsh from the organisers.

#youdontknowwhatyoulostuntilitsgone

especially in light of how the alleged victim has behaved in the past and had far more lenient penalties.

Pure lols.

I can't find a clip of the earlier crash with GT. anyone got it?

Yeh agreed. Not as if cav has been innocent in his career. His silver last year at the Olympics was a controversy.
I reckon he went down on purpose today because he was frustrated he had been put out of the running.

Quick reminder that a bunch of us will probably be listening to the commentators go on and on about today's events during tomorrow's stage as we slouch around in Hex:
https://www.lfgss.com/events/3143/#comment13721251
Form an orderly queue; no elbows

I reckon he went down on purpose today

??? Seriously?