Gianni Moscon has been handed a five-week suspension from the UCI after he was thrown out of the Tour de France for trying to punch another rider – but he will keep his job at Team Sky.
Moscon, 24, was disqualified following an incident that occurred in the opening kilometre during stage 15 of the Tour de France from Millau to Carcassone. Video footage showed Moscon raising his fist to the French rider Élie Gesbert and the race commissaires said the Italian had been disqualified for “particularly serious aggression”.
In accepting the suspension, Moscon said: “I reacted in the heat of the moment and it was never my intention to hit the rider. As the footage shows I didn’t make contact, but I regret my actions and I have already apologised to both Élie Gesbert and Team Fortuneo Samsic for the incident.”
In the aftermath of the disqualification, the Team Sky team principal, Dave Brailsford, refused to rule out terminating Moscon’s contract but has now indicated they want to rehabilitate the rider following the UCI ruling.
“We accept the UCI’s decision to suspend Gianni for a five-week period,” Brailsford said. “This incident obviously happened during one of the most challenging races the team has ever faced. We are confident that Gianni truly regrets his actions and has learnt from this episode.
“We have a duty of care to all our riders, which we take extremely seriously. Gianni is still a relatively young rider at the start of his career and we will continue to give him the help and support he needs to learn, develop and move forward from this.”
Moscon was previously stopped from racing by Sky for six weeks after admitting to racially abusing Kevin Reza at the 2017 Tour de Romandie, although he was not disciplined by the UCI at the time. He was also disqualified from the World Championships road race last year for holding on to a team car.
Meanwhile, according to a report in Cycling News, the CCC cycling team have made a “serious contract offer” to Geraint Thomas for 2019. The Tour de France winner’s deal with Team Sky runs out at the end of this season and CCC hope he will become their team leader.
“It’s true, we spoke with his manager and that’s true we gave the offer to Geraint,” CCC’s sporting director Piotr Wadecki said.
