Peter Sagan's first degree burns have forced him out of the Vuelta. Organisers have apologised to him but have still fined him.
Having reacted very badly to being knocked off his bike on stage 8 of the Vuelta from Puebla de Don Fabrique to Murcia on Saturday, Peter Sagan has retired from the race.
His team said he could not continue safely, adding he had sustained serious burn injuries when knocked off his bike by a moto overtaking the bunch on the inside with 8km remaining in the 182.5km stage.
“Sagan was hit by a reckless auxiliary motorbike in the final kilometres of stage 8 and suffered wounds and burns of first and second degree on the left side of his body, from the hip to the lower leg,” his Tinkoff-Saxo team said in a statement.
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“In addition, he has a contusion on his left forearm with an intra-muscular hematoma.
“The team doctor, together with the sport directors at the Vuelta, decided that Sagan cannot safely continue the race with the injuries he suffered. As a result, he will fly back home as soon as possible.
I hope that what happened today is finally enough for starting doing things differently!! @lavuelta
— Peter Sagan (@petosagan) August 29, 2015
“The entire Tinkoff-Saxo team is disappointed and upset that Sagan's participation in the race comes to such an abrupt end.
“The Vuelta a España is one of the season's most important races and both Sagan and the team had high expectations.
“At the moment of the incident, Sagan was wearing the green jersey, he had won one stage, was set to target stage 8, while being in serious contention for later stage wins.
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“Despite this important loss, Tinkoff-Saxo will keep its remaining goals intact and the entire squad will support team leader Rafal Majka in his fight for wins in the mountain stages as well as a top position in the general classification.”
Sagan, clearly hoping to put a run of 2nd places behind him with more stage wins on the race, was still irate at the finish after punching a medic’s car and kicking a moto and his own bike in the moments after he fell so heavily.
.@petosagan suffers from burns of 1st and 2nd degree after being taken down by support motorbike #LV2015 pic.twitter.com/tZRQWmO2Ks
— Tinkoff Saxo (@tinkoff_saxo) August 29, 2015
He was fined a total of 300 Swiss Francs; 200 “for threats and insults” and 100 for “behaviour which damages the image of cycling”.
The driver of the Shimano neutral service moto that hit Sagan has been excluded from the race, and the Vuelta organisation apologised for the incident.
“Unfortunately, it isn't the first time such an incident happens," Sagan said.
"Even if motorbikes are forced to go through a group of riders, they should do it very carefully and not recklessly.
“In my opinion, motorbike drivers don't take the safety of the riders in consideration seriously.
“Fortunately, my injuries aren't very serious but can you imagine what would have happened if he had ran over me?"
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