Team Sky responds to race jury's decision to disqualify Gianni Moscon from the 2018 Tour de France

Team Sky has released a statement responding to the race jury's decision to disqualify Gianni Moscon from the 2018 Tour de France following an altercation with Fortuneo-Samsic rider Elie Gesbert.

Moscon finished in the main peloton on stage 15 between Millau and Carcassonne, but was later disqualified for an incident that took place just 800m after the flag dropped on the 181.5km stage.

Video footage of the incident shows Moscon taking a swipe at Gesbert with his right arm before launching in acceleration in pursuit of Gesbert’s team leader Warren Barguil who had attacked a few seconds previously.

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In response to Moscon's disqualification, Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford said that the team is fully behind the jury's decision and that they would now look at whether further action needed to be taken against the 24-year-old Italian.

"We support and accept the decision by the race organisers to exclude Gianni Moscon from the Tour de France," Brailsford said in a statement issued in the hours after the stage.

"Gianni is desperately disappointed in his behaviour and knows that he has let himself, the team and the race down. We will address this incident with Gianni once the Tour is complete and decide then if any further action should be taken.

"I would like to offer my sincere apologies to both Elie Gesbert and Team Fortuneo Samsic for this unacceptable incident."

This is not the first moment of controversy for Moscon. In June, the UCI disciplinary commission cleared him of hitting Sébastien Reichenbach during the 2017 Tre Valli Varesine, with Reichenbach saying that Moscon caused him to crash.

That case came after another with Reichenbach’s former Groupama-FDJ team-mate Kévin Reza, where Moscon was reported to have used racial slurs against the black French rider.

Team Sky sidelined Moscon for six weeks and sent him on a diversity awareness course after that incident.