News in brief: The story of road world champion Peter Sagan's exclusion from the tour continues. As his racing team BORA-hansgrohe announced a few minutes ago, an urgent application has been made to the International Sports Court CAS to have the disqualification lifted. That would mean Sagan could potentially re-enter the race.
The published press release refers to the UCI regulations, after which a driver must be heard by the race commission before being punished in order to present his point of view. This did not happen in the case of Peter Sagan.
Update: The appeal has since been filed rejected by CAS.
The full text of the press release
The team and Peter Sagan, represented by the lawyers Prof. Dr. Rainer Cherkeh (Hanover) and Dr. Maurice Courvoisier (Walder Wyss AG, Basel) called the CAS yesterday, in connection with the urgent application to temporarily suspend the enforcement of the decision of the "Commissaires Panel" from the late evening of July 04.07.2017th, XNUMX, which was confirmed by the President of the UCI.
The team and Peter Sagan maintain that Peter Sagan did not, let alone knowingly, cause Mark Cavendish's fall in the final 200m of Stage 04.07.2017 on XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX. Peter Sagan kept his driving line and couldn't see Mark Cavendish on the right.
Although it is clearly anchored in the UCI CYCLING REGULATIONS that the athlete concerned must be heard before a disciplinary decision is made (Rule 12.2.006: "The Commissaires Panel may judge the matter only if the offending party has had a chance to defend his point of view […]”), Peter Sagan was denied any opportunity to present his point of view to the “Commissaires Panel”.
If the application for suspension, which the CAS now has to decide on, is granted, Peter Sagan will immediately get back into the ongoing racing and fight with the BORA - hansgrohe team for a successful organization of the Tour de France 2017.
George Wie says
I think hearing the accused is right and important. This is also done regularly in Formula 1, for example.