UCI president blames Tour de France crashes 'above all' on riders and tension in peloton

PONTIVY FRANCE JUNE 28 Caleb Ewan of Australia and Team Lotto Soudal involved in a crash at arrival during the 108th Tour de France 2021 Stage 3 a 1829km stage from Lorient to Pontivy LeTour TDF2021 Marco Haller of Austria and Team Bahrain Victorious Jack Haig of Australia and Team Bahrain Victorious involved in a crash Injury on June 28 2021 in Pontivy France Photo by AnneChristine Poujoulat PoolGetty Images
Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) is taken away after his crash late on stage 3 (Image credit: Getty Images)

UCI president David Lappartient has denied that the design of the course on stage 3 of the Tour de France had anything to do with the numerous crashes that shook up the peloton and left a large number of riders injured.

Lappartient, who comes from the finish town of Pontivy, has also responded to the criticisms of cycling’s “international authorities” made by Groupama-FDJ’s director Marc Madiot on French TV. Madiot claimed that, amongst others, cycling’s governing bodies had failed to provide solutions to the fraught, crash-filled, finales that the Tour has seen on two of its opening stages and warned that there could soon be deaths if the situation continued.

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