The elbow seen round the world
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Subtle elbow twitch results in one player being injured and both disqualified.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinions. But vile and threatening comments on social media to myself and my family aren’t deserved.” Mark Cavendish (via Twitter).
The month of July marks the start of the Tour de France, but during its opening weekend, it was met with incident. Well-known cyclist Peter Sagan appeared in a video elbowing competitor Mark Cavendish into the outlining fence. The subtle flick of the elbow caused a pile-up on the track that resulted in Cavendish hitting the wall before falling down and causing injury to other riders.
Peter Sagan was disqualified after reviewers of the video accused him on Tuesday of purposefully causing the crash that injured not just Cavendish but also two other athletes in the crash. Cavendish, quoted by news agency Reuters, said:
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“I get on with Peter well. If he came across, it’s one thing but the elbow. …I’m not a fan of him putting his elbow in me like that, A crash is a crash.”
Despite the video, everyone did not react the way one would have thought. Outrage at Sagan’s poor sense of sportsmanship was the expected reaction along with sympathy for Carvendish’s injuries. Instead, according to Carvendish’s wife, the family is being harassed online. Twitter has shown nothing but merciless lashings toward Cavendish and notably called him an “actor and liar” according to CNN. Blame was instead put on Carvendish not Sagan and many claim that the 30 stage winner, caused the epic crash.
Carvendish addressed the online trolls via Twitter, letting them know not just his side of the story but also reminding them that “it’s [a] sport.”
Yes, yes it is.
For one of the many videos out there, see the link of the crash below:
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