Italian rider Moscon was already on a final warning with Team Sky. Photo / AP
Italian rider Moscon was already on a final warning with Team Sky. Photo / AP
Team Sky's hopes of winning the 2018 Tour de France with either Geraint Thomas or Chris Froome have suffered a blow after one of their domestiques, the Italian Gianni Moscon, was excluded from the race for hitting another rider in the face.
Moscon swung an arm at Elie Gesbert [Fortuneo-Samsic], a young French rider, in the opening kilometre of Sunday's stage from Millau to Carcassonne.
Video footage was reviewed by the race commissaires after the stage, which saw Thomas and Froome safely maintain their positions at the top of the general classification. The commissaire's report said that Moscon had been excluded for a "particularly serious act of aggression". It was unclear whether or how he had been provoked.
Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford said he "supported" and "accepted" the decision, adding that Moscon was "desperately disappointed in his behaviour" and knew that he had "let himself, the team and the race down".
"We will address this incident with Gianni once the Tour is complete and decide then if any further action should be taken," Brailsford said in a written statement. "I would like to offer my sincere apologies to both Elie Gesbert and Team Fortuneo Samsic for this unacceptable incident."
Brailsford will be furious. Not only do Thomas and Froome lose a key helper for the third week – albeit Sky were the only team with a rider in contention for the maillot jaune still to have all eight riders – the incident is hardly going to help relations with the locals. Sky have been booed by spectators all their way around France during this Tour.
Nor is this the first time Moscon has been in trouble with the authorities. The 24 year-old was already on a final warning after a string of misdemeanours over the last few years.
The Italian was suspended by Sky for six weeks after he admitted to racially abusing Kevin Reza at last year's Tour de Romandie. He was then accused of deliberately causing another rider, Sebastien Reichenbach (FDJ), to crash during the Tre Valli Varesine, with the Swiss rider alleging that Moscon had done it in retribution for his role in bringing the Reza incident to light.
The UCI's disciplinary committee dropped that case due to a lack of evidence, but the incident did not help Moscon's reputation, which then suffered a further blow when he was disqualified from last year's world championship road race after a video emerged of him taking a tow from the Italian team car after he was caught up in a crash on the penultimate lap.
The irony is Thomas had just been saying how nice it was to have a day in which he did not have to "fight", with Team Sky controlling the bunch behind the day's breakaway. Astana's Magnus Cort Neilsen won a three-up sprint with Ion Izaguirre [Bahrain-Merida] and Bauke Mollema [Trek-Segafredo] for the stage win, with the main bunch rolling home 13 minutes later. Dan Martin [UAE Team Emirates] tried to attack over the top of the day's big climb, the Pic de Nore, 40km from Carcassonne. And Romain Bardet [AG2R] tried to attack on the descent, nearly crashing as a result. Both were easily reeled in, though, and Thomas said he was looking forward to spending most of his rest day in bed, resting up ahead of the Pyrenees.
Thomas also addressed the booing which he and his team mates have received during this Tour, saying he did not feel that he had done anything to deserve it.
"It's not a nice situation, and obviously we would prefer everyone to love us, but I'm not sure there's anything we've done, or especially that I've done, to deserve it," he said. "You have to stay strong in your head and crack on. The way I see it, I would rather be in this jersey, having the race of my life and getting booed for whatever than being dropped on the first climb and everyone cheering you."
With the peloton enjoying its final rest day today ahead of the start of the Pyrenees tomorrow, Team Sky will hold a press conference at their team hotel this morning where they can expect to field questions about their leadership dynamic and how they are going to cope with having a rider who has never proven himself in a three week race 1:39 ahead of one who has won six grand tours.
Parallels with the 2012 Tour, where Sir Bradley Wiggins felt that a young Froome attacked him against team orders, have been drawn by many, although in truth this Tour more closely resembles the 2011 Vuelta a Espana, where a then unproven Froome found himself ahead of his team leader Wiggins. Sky did not end up winning that race. And while Thomas and Froome get along far better than Froome and Wiggins ever did, with Thomas in particular a very placid, straightforward character, at some point, the nearer it gets to Sunday, ambition and tension will come into it.
Losing a key helper, an all-rounder who rode brilliantly in support of Froome at last year's Vuelta, to a controversial incident with one week to go is not ideal preparation.
