Cavendish's team 'surprised' by UCI/Sagan settlement of TDF crash

Team Dimension Data said it was ‘surprised’ not to be included when Peter Sagan settled his legal dispute with the UCI Tuesday. Sagan was ejected from the 2017 Tour de France after tangling with Dimension Data’s Mark Cavendish.

“As riders and teams, we want all parties to work together to make racing safe and enjoyable. We understood this dispute was over the process that prevented Bora-Hansgrohe from stating their case to the race jury,” Dimension Data said in a statement. “However, following today’s announcement it seems the investigation also included reviewing the actual race incident. Given that we are the team with the rider who ultimately suffered the most as a result of this incident, we were surprised to not be included to offer our insights to the investigation.”

The crash in Vittel effectively ended Cavendish’s season due to a broken shoulder blade. He went on to start Tour of Britain and seven other lower-tier UCI races but admitted that he still wasn’t fully recovered from the injury.

Dimension Data reiterated its contention that Cavendish was not to blame for the crash.

In a statement from his Bora-Hansgrohe team, Sagan said, “The past is already forgotten.”

However, it seems Dimension Data might not agree. Its team principal Doug Ryder will request a more detailed explanation from the UCI following the out-of-court settlement.