Tour de France 2020: 'Sprinters are crazy guys fighting for places,' says Primož Roglič after Peter Sagan relegated
The Slovakian shoved the yellow jersey's team-mate, Wout van Aert, in the sprint finish on stage 11
Race leader Primož Roglič says the relegation of Peter Sagan after his irregular on stage 11 of the Tour de France was the "right decision".
Sagan was stripped of his second-place finish and relegated to last place in the peloton after he shoved Roglič's Jumbo-Visma team-mate Wout van Aert in the rush for the line.
"I think it's the right decision, the sprinters are quite different to how [the GC guys] are," Roglič said after the finish. "They're really crazy guys fighting for the places, fighting to do their sprint, but it's a part of it. I think still it needs to be fair and it was the right decision."
Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) emerged victorious, taking his second stage win of this year's race and said the incident looked worse on TV than it was in reality.
"I think it looks worse on TV than it was but in the end I think it cost him the win. If he'd got through that gap I think he probably would have got the win but he got propped there and maybe he lost a bit of speed," he said. "That's the way sprinting is sometimes...sometimes gaps are left for you and sometimes gaps close.
"We're all at our limit trying to go for a stage win at the Tour de France and no-one wants to brake and no-one is really thinking about safety and that kind of thing.
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"I know Peter would have seen that line and saw the gap and he already had his handlebars in there and was getting squeezed really..."
The punishment means that Sam Bennett (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) is promoted to second-place finisher on the stage and extends his lead in the green jersey classification.
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Jonny was Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor until 2022.
I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.
Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).
I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.
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