
Peter Sagan on Tuesday was kicked out of the Tour de France after he was involved in a nasty crash that sent sprint rival Mark Cavendish flying into a crowd barrier and onto the ground at high speed.
Update: Mark Cavendish was forced to withdraw from the Tour with a broken shoulder. Sagan's Bora-Hansgrohe team is protesting the ruling that disqualified him from the race.
It happened on the race's fourth stage in the finish town of Vittel, after a quiet day of racing that eventually saw the sprinters' teams setting up their fast men for the finale.
As the leaders raced for the line at speeds approaching 40 mph, Cavendish tried to come around Sagan but appeared to be knocked into the barriers and onto the ground. Cavendish was taken to the hospital for X-rays.
You can watch the crash in the video clips below:
"We've decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the Tour de France 2017 as he endangered some of his colleagues seriously in the final metres of the sprint which happened in Vittel," said the president of the race commission, Philippe Marien.
"We will apply article 12.104 of the rules of the UCI ... in which case commissaires (the race jury) can decide to enforce a judgment to disqualify a rider."