Nearly two weeks on from being disqualified from the Tour de France, Peter Sagan has said that he still thinks that the race jury made “a big mistake” in kicking him out of the race.
Sagan was disqualified following an incident in the final metres of stage four that sent Mark Cavendish crashing to the ground with a broken shoulder blade, the race jury deciding exclude him for “irregular sprinting”.
Speaking to Belgian television, Sagan said that although he had accepted his fate, he still disagreed with the decision to disqualify him.
“I can accept that I’m out of the Tour, but I cannot accept the jury’s decision,” the two-time world champion told VTM Nieuws. “It was a big mistake, I think.”
Watch: Tour de France stage four highlights
Bora-Hansgrohe protested the jury’s decision to the UCI, a move that was ultimately unsuccessful, but Sagan said he was frustrated at the lack of communication from the jury, who apparently did not give him a chance to give his interpretation of events.
“I was waiting for the decision on whether I would start the next day or not. The answer never came. Why not? It’s the 21st century.”
Sagan is now preparing for the Tour de Pologne, where he will make his comeback to racing after being excluded from the Tour.
The Slovak is then expected to race in the BinckBank Tour (formerly the Eneco Tour) in August, before travelling to Norway to go in search of a third-successive rainbow jersey.
