Thank you for the pings, being deep in my basement installing a boiler, I would have missed the excitement.
To add a bit:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/booting-peter-sagan-from-the-tour-de-france-fair-or-foul-1499279400?tesla=y
The video replay has been argued about, slow-mo’d, super-slow-mo’d, atomized and picked apart with Zapruder-like focus. Accusations have flown. Sides have been taken. Sagan and Cavendish have been trending on Twitter in the U. S.—as if they were NBA free agents.
The whole thing is another dose of crazy for a sport that pretty much invented crazy...
I think it’s important to establish that a field sprint in a bike race is a highly chaotic environment. Bikes are moving at speeds approaching 40 miles an hour, heart rates are fully in the red, and, in a race like the Tour de France, careers can literally be made with a victory. ..
I’ve watched the video at least 40 times, and there are angles that look terribly damning to Sagan, and then angles that make it look like Cavendish was already crashing before Sagan flicked an elbow, which will now be known in Tour de France lore as The Elbow. What’s undeniable is that Cavendish crashes very hard, and on his way down, takes out a couple of riders behind him as well. It’s a pile-up. It’s ugly. It also happens in bike races all the time....
It’s dangerous, but sprinters bump shoulders and butts and even helmets from time to time, intentionally and not. Chances are taken—Cavendish took one himself in moving up between Sagan and the barrier, because while Sagan can move, a barrier doesn’t care who Cavendish is, and isn’t going anywhere. But aggression like that is everywhere in a sprint. Smart aggression can be rewarded. Dumb aggression can be a disaster. Emotions afterward run high.
...
What seems pretty clear among sprinters is that even if Sagan deserved a penalty for contact with Cavendish—and there’s also reports he was cited for dodgy riding before that—throwing him out of the race was a truly nuclear option. Retired Tour sprinters like Baden Cooke and Robbie McEwen lined up to disagree with dramatic expulsion...
Sagan is a supremely skilled and admired (even Cavendish likes him) rider who’s brought panache and personality to a sport that can sometimes feel personality-deprived. To be clear: That’s not a reason to keep him in the Tour if what he did clearly merited being tossed from the race. But it doesn’t seem clear. Clarity is nowhere to be found. The arguments are still raging, and likely will be for a long time.
What we’re left with is a race without Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish—and a Tour that suddenly feels a lot less fun.
As I said before I agree with Paul Sherwin's comprehensive assessment as detailed in his stop action explanation of the incident. On the subjective side I've never heard of Sagan purposely going after someone in a sprint. But, Cavendish has a history that speaks for itself. Maybe that's why so much social media is stacking up against him.