Having been suspended for racism in the spring and been disqualified from the Bergen Worlds for taking a massive sticky bottle, Gianni Moscon is in more trouble. And this time a rival rider has involved the police.
Gianni Moscon faces police inquiry over Sébastien Reichenbach crash
Italian pro cyclist Gianni Moscon now faces a police inquiry over allegations he deliberately caused a recent race crash.
Sébastien Reichenbach of FDJ crashed in Tre Valli Varesine in Italy on Wednesday.
He has accused Moscon of deliberately causing that crash and says he is filing a formal complaint with the police.
Reichenbach has alleged Moscon (Team Sky) wanted to exact revenge on him over an incident earlier in the year.
Moscon racially abused Reichenbach’s team mate Kevin Reza at the Tour de Romandie in April.
And after the incident Reichenbach took to social media to highlight the incident.
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Moscon was suspended by Team Sky over the incident and sent on a diversity course.
And the team has formally warned him that any repeat would result in his contract being terminated.
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Sébastien Reichenbach has now alleged that Moscon resented him highlighting the Reza incident earlier in the year and so deliberately made him crash yesterday.
However, Moscon has denied any involvement in the crash. He says he does not know Reichenbach and had never spoken to him.
“I am going to file a complaint against Gianni Moscon, because he deliberately caused me to crash," he told Swiss newspaper Le Nouvelliste.
"Several other riders saw it happen. And they are willing to testify in my favour.
“This could have ended much worse. Moscon literally threw himself at me on the descent. My team FDJ supports me as well, to file a complaint.”
And he insisted Moscon had targeted him for his highlighting of Moscon’s abuse of Reza.
"This is payback for my tweet during the Tour of Romandie, which led to his internal suspension,” he said. “But I hadn't even mentioned him by name at the time."
Gianni Moscon denies allegations
However, Moscon has clearly and firmly rejected the allegations from Sébastien Reichenbach.
“It’s not true; it is nothing to do with me,” he said in an interview with the Italian media. “We were on a section of rough road and Reichenbach’s hands slipped from his handlebars. I’ve never spoken to him in my life.”
Aside from his racial abuse of Reza, Moscon was also disqualified from the recent World Championships. In that case he took a stick bottle from the Italian team car; all captured on video from behind.
And the cheating was blatant both rider and team car farcically continued the tow right into the start of the pits. Consequently, a very large number of people working on the race witnessed it.
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