Cycling: Great excitement about Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) and Andrey Grivko (Astana). An altercation broke out between the two riders during today's leg of the Dubai Tour, culminating in Grivko Kittel slapping him in the face, lacerating him in the process. Astana has since apologized for Grivko's behavior via Twitter, but the hothead could no longer avoid disqualification.
[blog style=”def” cols=”2″ display=”specific” specific=”63134″ posts_per_page=”0″ offset=”0″ pagination=”no” ad_id=”0″ ad_count=”3″ ad_repeat=”yes”]Unpleasant scenes during today's leg of the Dubai Tour. In extremely difficult weather conditions with strong gusts of wind, there were tough battles for position in the field, during which the Ukrainian Astana pro Andrey Grivko and Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) got into each other's hair. The argument culminated in an elbowing of Kittel, who suffered a gash but was able to complete the stage on the bike. Grivko has since been disqualified from the race, but Kittel and his team are demanding harsher consequences.
As Kittel reported after the stage, the cause of the dispute was the tough battle for positions in the field. “I tried to line up in one of the wind teams in which one of his [Grivkos, ed. Red.] young teammates drove. He didn't like that. I tried to go around the outside and then got in between Grivko and his colleague. I had to push Grivko a bit, but I didn't take my hands off the handlebars. I then tried to talk to the young driver, which is why he is taking such a big risk, and suddenly I get hit." so Kittel told reporters.
I won't accept an apology for this. That has nothing to do with cycling. What Grivko did is a shame for our beautiful sport. pic.twitter.com/vvMN5LzQN0
— Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel) February 2rd 2017
According to Kittel, he tried to confront Grivko during the race. "I shouldn't repeat here in front of the microphones what I said to him." so the German top sprinter. But Kittel no longer wants an apology: “It's a fine line. If there's a fight during the race, you talk about it. Maybe you touch each other for a moment. I really don't have a problem with that, but if you hurt someone, it's over. Sorry doesn't count anymore, things are as they are."
Astana Proteam apologizes to @marcelkittel and @quickstepteam for improper behavior of its rider @andrei_007 during stage 3 of @dubaitour
- Astana Proteam (@AstanaTeam) February 2rd 2017
Grivko's team Astana has since apologized to Marcel Kittel and Quick-Step Floors via Twitter. However, it wouldn't be too surprising if the UCI followed up with more penalties for the 33-year-old Ukrainian.
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