The incident took place at the end of stage 3 with both riders appearing to have a heated discussion after the line. Neither Team Sky nor FDJ would confirm what Moscon said but at the start of stage 4 both parties told Cyclingnews that an apology had been issued by Moscon and accepted by Reza. The Frenchman declined to comment on the serious matter.
"The matter is closed and the apology was accepted by Kevin. There's nothing more to say on that side from FDJ," a member of the FDJ management told Cyclingnews. Cyclingnews understands that FDJ waited for Reza to respond before backing their rider's decision of accepting Moscon's apology.
Both teams arrived at the start of stage 4 in Domdidier at the same time, meaning that their buses were parked just meters away. FDJ chose to stay on their bus until ten minutes before the start while Team Sky's Nicolas Portal took questions from L'Equipe and then Cyclingnews.
Portal, whose first language is French, admitted that Moscon’s actions were wrong but he confirmed that Team Sky would not dismiss their rider from the race. According to Portal, and then later a Team Sky spokesperson, Moscon will be disciplined by the team internally after the race concludes on Sunday. The two remaining stages are Saturday's queen stage and Sunday's individual time trial.Team Sky are still in the hunt for the overall.
"There’s been an incident between the two riders," Portal told Cyclingnews.
"There was a big fight at the finish and, yes, it hurt Kevin. After the stage Gianni apologised and we went to see FDJ this morning to make the effort so they know we take it seriously. Kevin accepted and that was nice that the two guys could shake hands and that there was an apology. There's no excuse for that but we moved on."
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Portal would not confirm what Moscon had said: "I don't want to comment but it wasn't nice. If Kevin wants to comment then he will. It was a big incident for us and for him and we treated it.
"This is something we're going to take seriously after the race. In this sport we have all generations of bike riders and some really young bike riders. It's our job to teach them the right way, we've seen really bad behaviour in other sports, and this is really bad. We explained this to Gianni and he understood."
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
