Tour Exclusions: From rail trips to elbow checks

1904: Just a year after the successful premiere, the tour experienced its first major scandal. Some drivers – including opening winner Maurice Garin – cover the stages, which can be more than 400 kilometers long, by car or train. There are also physical attacks on competitors by supporters of local drivers. After a month-long investigation, the top four in the overall ranking are finally excluded.

1985: Dietrich Thurau was once celebrated on the tour as the “blonde angel”, but in 1985 he also showed his different face. After a race commissioner gave him a time penalty for slipstreaming, he grabbed the official by the collar. For the man from Frankfurt, the tour was over straight away.

1997: Things get heated in the mass sprint in Marennes between the Belgian Tom Steels and the Frenchman Frédéric Moncassin. Steels loses his nerve and throws the bottle at Moncassin. The sprinter must leave early after this action.

2010: As driver for Mark Cavendish, Mark Renshaw should clear the way for his captain. In the finish sprint of the eleventh stage in Bourg-Lès-Valence, the Australian overdid it. He head-butted the New Zealander Julian Dean and was then excluded.

2017: World champion Peter Sagan elbows Mark Cavendish in the sprint final of the fourth stage to Vittel. The Briton crashed into the barriers and suffered a fractured shoulder blade. Sagan is disqualified for recklessness. The Bora-hansgrohe team then even contacted the International Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) - without success. It was only months later that the UCI gave in and agreed with the team that the Slovakian had been wrongly excluded.

2018: On the 15th stage, Sky professional Gianni Moscon clashed with Frenchman Elie Gesbert shortly after the start and tried to hit him with his fist. The Italian is disqualified and banned for five weeks.

2019: On the 17th stage there is a tussle between four-time time trial world champion Tony Martin and Luke Rowe. Martin cuts off the Brit quite badly with a good 15 kilometers to go. He then raises his hand and seems to want to hit Martin. Both are excluded, have to pay a fine of 1000 Swiss francs and have 50 points deducted from the world rankings.

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Tour Exclusions: From rail trips to elbow checks

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