World champion concludes spectator's jacket sparked race-losing spill
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A battered Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) leads Peter Sagan and Matteo Trentin (QuickStep Floors)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) in action during Gent-Wevelgem(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) finishes third in Gent-Wevelgem(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
After seeing a video posted by a Belgian fan, Peter Sagan has concluded that his race-ending crash on the Tour of Flanders' Oude Kwaremont was the result of a spectator's jacket that was hanging over the barriers and caught his left arm as he brushed past on the verge adjacent to the cobblestones.
Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) and Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) were chasing less than a minute behind lone leader and eventual race winner Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) when Sagan crashed, taking down his two companions. Van Avermaet was the quickest to remount and ultimately finished second.
In his post-race interview, Sagan said he thought that something had caught his bars as he went by, rather than the hypothesis that he had clipped the barrier feet.
"I was close to the barriers. I was in control when I was close to the barriers, but I think we caught a jacket or something, because if I'd hit the barrier, I would have been on the ground straight away, and the bike would have stayed there," Sagan said after the race.
With the video, he has his proof, so he says in the Tweet below.
