Cavendish out of Tour de France with broken shoulder

Cavendish is pure class, what Sagan did (at 60/70kmh) is inexcusable. Takes some ballsy organisers to kick out their main drawcard, good on them.

Re-view the video. Cavendish comes up and into Sagan as Sagan is near the rail on a straight line following the wheel of the eventual stage winner. There is no room on the right for Cavendish. His front wheel hits Sagan's rear wheel, and Cavendish's head makes contact with Sagan's torso. Cavendish begins to go down; Sagan's right arm and left leg both go outward as he instinctively acts to maintain balance and stay up... Cavendish caused the crash

@JJ, I did watch different angles/footages and although one seems to favour your theory, others didn't. The way I see it, Sagan deviated from his line i.e towards the barricades (Cavendish' line), Cav' then leaned on Sagan, sort of, to protect himself I assume before crashing against the barriers. Sagan's elbow stuff is imo fairly anecdotal.

Imo, riders/sprinters who are front and centre do have what we could call a 'duty of care' to those against the barricades who have nowhere to go (similar to tacklers having a duty of care to those in the air in rugby).

Now I have to admit it's not as clear cut as I initially thought it was last night/this morning so DQ may be excessive. Tough call really but sprinters need to understand that reckless sprinting has no place in cycling (Cavendish' been guilty of the same in the past).

JJ, whilst we can all debate this incident for some time, at the end of the day the Tour referees are professionals and highly experienced in the sport. So I doubt that anyone on JT holds more kudos on this decision than the race referees.

Sagan clearly stuck an elbow out, albeit half-heartedly. But at that speed in a sprint finish any movement of aggression is vitally dangerous. And the Tour announced it would be a lot more strict about these kinds of incidents.

Sagan probably lost a few friends in high places by blatantly advertising his sponsors cyclocross sunglasses on the winners podium the day before. Not even connected to Tour cycling gear and no place on the podium.

ps. Cavendish says he wants a face to face with Sagan - I wouldn't mess with Cav.

Riders on the public roads should be legally obliged to wear some type of light and flexible body armor. Surely an avenue for research?

nanda, try cycling a 3 week Tour over the Alps and see how you like wearing body armour. Seriously though, light body armour would never protect a pro Tour cyclist. The damage is done by sudden impact hitting concrete at around 60km per hour which would still fracture shoulders and collar bones.