We can't go too far without hearing from the King of Argy Bargy himself Mr Robbie McEwen, noted giver and receiver of some pretty choice moves during his sprint career. To the video! His expert analysis of the sprint here:
On Twitter, McEwen said Sagan deserved a DQ but only from the stage not the entire Tour.
The race jury agreed. This from Sophie Smith's piece earlier today:
"Sagan was initially disqualified from the stage, penalised 30 seconds on the general classification and 35 points from the green jersey competition after he and Cavendish collided within the final 250m of the race to Vittel."
Sagan apologised to Cav immediately after the crash.
But the Manx Missile was having none of it. Neither was his team.
"Outside, his sports director, Roger Hammond fumed, labelling the incident a "disgrace"," Sophie Smith writes. "He and performance manager Rolf Aldag later stormed away to remonstrate with commissaires."
""I've been onto the bus just to check Mark's condition. I'm not really sure what conversations they [Cavendish and Sagan] had, but if I was Sagan I would apologise for that," Hammond said."
After Dimension Data's visit, the race jury performed a bit of a backflip.
"Commisaires later decided to boot the Slovak superstar from the 104th edition for an "irregular sprint", citing judicial powers in UCI article 12.1.004," Sophie Smith ."
The World Champion himself rejected the jury's decision disagreeing he caused the crash. His team have launched an official protest.
"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.”
Dave Mckenzie, SBS cycling commentator and analyst also disagreed with the DQ.
Andre Greipel who finished third on the stage let his thoughts be known, also performing a backflip on his intiial opinion after considering the footage:
UAE-Emirates sprinter Ben Swift and Trek-Segafredo's John Degenkolb were both caught up in the Sagan/Cav tangle hittting the deck hard. Trek-Segafredo and Degenkolb had nothing to say specifically about Sagan's diqualification, focusing instead on the tense and restless night ahead for the German who hopes to start stage five.
Swift too didn't directly comment on the world champion's exit but had this to say on his Tour diary for :
"I always wonder what the spectators must think when they see a crash like that especially in a sprint. It all happens so fast. And then the riders jump back up and get to the finish. It must be quite an experience."
And perhaps the most expert of all - a young fan's opinion that's gone viral.
Some of other the valued opinions out there:
Needs no introduction to Tour viewers:
Former sprinter and green jersey winner (2003) Aussie Baden Cooke:
Former Italian sprint superstar and green jersey winner (2010) Alessandro Pettachi (Ale-Jet!):
But more importantly, you. Let us know what you think.
