Team Sky's key domestique Gianni Moscon has been evicted from the Tour de France after he was seen punching a fellow rider in the opening kilometre of Sunday's stage 15.
Replays appeared to show the Italian, who has played an important part in Team Sky's domination of this year's Tour, reaching behind him to hit the French rider Elie Gesbert after around 800m of the route from Millau to Carcassonne, and race commissaires later disqualified him for "serious aggression".
Moscon has a chequered history, having last year racially abused another rider and also suffered disqualification from the world championships for holding on to a team car and his future at Team Sky is now under serious threat.
The talented Dane Magnus Cort Nielsen won the stage in a sprint in convincing style to claim the first Tour de France stage of his career, on an otherwise calm and controlled day for Geraint Thomas who maintained his hold on the yellow jersey and his 1 min 39 sec advantage over Team Sky team-mate Chris Froome.
The final 10km descended into a tactical tease between eight riders of which three teams had a pair of contestants – Bahrain-Merida, Trek-Segafredo and Astana. They came together to shut down the hangers on and sent one each up the road chasing victory, where Astana’s Nielsen led Jon Izagirre and Bauka Mollema into the finish, slowing the pace heading into the final 400m before showing his sprinting prowess to win by several lengths.
Gianni Moscon was disqualified after an altercation (AFP/Getty Images)
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It was the second successive stage win for the Kazakh team and signalled what might be to come for the impressive Nielsen. “It’s amazing, it’s what I’ve been dreaming off since before I could ride a bike,” said the 25-year-old. “It’s my first year here at the Tour. I have to thank my team a lot for believing in me and Michael [Valgren] for helping in the finish. Many days ago the team said this was the stage for me and everything worked out perfectly.”
Mollema, who finished third, said of the finish: “It was a tactical finale. We worked well together, everybody was looking at each other and it was a bit of a game in the last 10km. It was good to attack, but you know that Nielsen is so fast and I think he deserved to win today.”
Team Sky controlled the peloton virtually from the start in Millau, rolling under its magnificent viaduct and south towards the Pyrenees where this race will ultimately be decided next week, and it quickly split into two separate battles: a breakaway chasing the stage victory and the overall leaders contesting the yellow jersey 15 minutes behind them.
The peloton rides under the Millau Viaduct (AFP/Getty Images)
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A group of more than 40 stragglers which included talented French sprinter Arnaud Démare were quickly dropped during the stage’s lumpy start, while at the front a determined group of 29 riders made a breakaway stick, allowed to go because none carried much threat to yellow.
Not for the first time on this Tour, the French team Direct Energy threw a spanner in the works, this time in the shape of Lilian Calmejane who attacked on his own to break free and scale the middle of the day’s three categorised climbs, the Col de Sié, solo.
From there the race headed down to the town of Mazemet and the foot of the final climb, the steep and exposed category-one Pic de More making its Tour de France debut. Calmejane tagged out and his team-mate Fabien Grellier took over, grinding towards the summit with Trek-Segafredo’s Julian Bernard on his tail, with the breakaway strung out in several pockets of chasers behind them.
Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas during stage 15 (AFP/Getty Images)
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As the roads steepened, the two-time king of the mountains Rafal Majka pumped his way up the Pic de Nore, past Grellier, Bernard and over the top. Two gave chase in the howling wind: Bernard’s South African team-mate Mollema, so far having a surprisingly quiet Tour, and impressively the Dane better known for his sprinting, Nielsen.
Fifteen minutes back down the hill the yellow-jersey group were seemingly content to amble home with Team Sky on the nose and in control, but after suffering a puncture on Saturday, Ireland’s Dan Martin saw a window of opportunity. Tenth overall at the start of the day and six minutes back, Martin suddenly surged into the distance in an effort to earn back time and assuming that he posed so little threat to Team Sky they wouldn’t give chase.
Magnus Cort Nielsen celebrates his victory on the line (Getty)
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He was wrong, with Team Sky initially opting to hold their position, filling the roads as they narrowed to block counter-attacks and quickly smothering an attempted jab from Romain Bardet, before eventually upping the pace and sucking Martin back in – a compliment if not a material gain in minutes and seconds for the Irishman.
Up ahead Majka was reeled in on the descent into Carcassonne as seven members of the original breakaway came back together and the road flattened out. As three emerged, Nielsen took control to claim his first Tour win in a signal of what his future might hold; for Thomas, Froome and Team Sky, it is all about the present and making the most of the final rest day before this race’s fascinating showdown in the Pyrenees, which they will tackle without one of their key supports.
