Thread by @NoahvPutten

Explaining the cycling iceberg: When World Champion Peter Sagan got disqualified from the 2017 Tour de France. 1/13

#cyclingiceberg

The 4th stage of the 2017 Tour de France was a straightforward flat stage that went from Mondorf-les-Bains to Vittel. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wanty) was the only rider to go in the break, and got caught with 20km to go. 2/13

The technical final in Vittel made it hard for sprinters to get their trains organized. Just before the final km a crash, involving yellow jersey Geraint Thomas, caused a split in the front of the peloton. Around 20 riders were left in contention for the stage win. 3/13

Kristoff was the first to launch his sprint, but the real carnage happened behind. First Greipel collided with Bouhanni, and barely managed to stay on his bike. Then Sagan & Cavendish collided. Both moved to the right to get in the draft of Demare, but they ran out of space. 4/13

They made minor contact, but the consequences were enormous. Cavendish went into the barriers and broke his shoulder. Sagan still finished third, behind stage winner Demare & Kristoff. The consequences for Sagan followed after the stage. 5/13

An hour after the finish he was demoted to the last place of the peloton & got a points penalty. The jury later came back on this decision. On the footage it looked like Sagan punted Cavendish into the barrier with his elbow. The jury disqualied him from the race. 6/13

The 2x world champion & winner of 5 consecutive green jersey being disqualified was a shock to the race. Sagan appealed the decision, but the decision stood. Sagan then appealed to the CAS, but reached an agreement with the UCI before the hearing took place. 7/13

The UCI stated that Sagan was not at fault for the crash, as the elbow went out after Cavendish went down, but that the Jury made the best possible assessment of the situation without having all camera angles available to them. 8/13

With Sagan being out of the race there would be a new winner of the maillot vert for the first time in 5 years. Arnaud Demare (FDJ) led the points classification after his stage win, but missed the timecut of stage 9. That made Marcel Kittel (Quickstep) the new green jersey. 9/13

The German sprinter had already won 9 TDF stages between 2013-2016 but was truly on a different level in 2017. He won the second stage to Liege from a bad position, and repeated that in the 6th stage. He also won the 7th stage in a disputable photo finish with Boasson Hagen 10/12

The sprints in stages 10 and 11 were some of Kittel’s best sprints ever. The Quickstep leadout was lacking in 2017, but he won both sprints by passing around 10 riders in the final 250m. He became the German rider with the most stage wins in the Tour de France. 11/13

He had a firm grip on the green jersey, but Michael Matthews (Sunweb) reduced the gap from 130 to 40 points by winning the hilly 14th and 16th stages, and gaining points at the intermediate sprints. But with 2 flat stages left things were still looking good for Kittel. 12/13

However, in the 17th stage Kittel was involved in a big crash. He tried to continue, but was too hurt. He withdrew from the race in the green jersey. Michael Matthews then easily won his first, and so far only, green jersey. 13/13

Sources: cyclingmagazine.ca/sections/news/… velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-raci… cyclingnews.com/news/peter-sag…

Videos
Stage 4:
Kittel wins:
2 6 7 10
11