Peter Sagan's Tour de France DQ case heads to CAS in December

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Peter Sagan's case against the UCI over his disqualification from the 2017 Tour de France will appear in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport on December 5. The news of the hearing was confirmed when the CAS posted a schedule of upcoming hearing on their official website.

Listed as "Peter Sagan & Denk Pro Cycling GmbH & Co. KG v. Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)", the case stems from the Tour de France when the three-time world champion was ejected from the race following a high-profile and controversial crash involving Dimension Data rider Mark Cavendish.

The incident took place during the sprint finish for stage 4, and left Cavendish out of the race with a broken shoulderblade. Sagan was initially docked 30 seconds and 80 points in the Green Jersey competition. However, upon further video analysis, the jury announced the new decision to the media. Several other riders were also taken down in the fall, while Arnaud Demare (FDJ) went on to win the stage.

"We've decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the Tour de France 2017 after the tumultuous sprint, here in Vittel. He endangered multiple riders, Mark Cavendish and others who were implicated in the crash, in the final meters of the sprint," an official from the race jury announced. "We applied article 12.104, irregular sprints, in which case commissaires are allowed to enforce a judgement to disqualify a rider and amend a fine."

The morning after his disqualification Sagan told a gathering of journalists that he reluctantly accepted the decision. "What can I do? I can just accept the decision of the jury but for sure I don't agree with them because I think I didn't do something wrong in the sprint."

Two days after the incident Bora-Hansgrohe announced that they, along with Sagan, had lodged an appeal with CAS to overturn the decision in order to see their sprinter re-instated in the race. The team's claim appeared to be based on UCI's decision not to allow Sagan to make a personal defence at the time. The re-instatement obviously never took place but the case against the UCI has rumbled on.

On Saturday and Sunday Cyclingnews attempted to contact team manager Ralf Denk and the squad's press officer. The team were not willing to comment on an 'ongoing case'.