Australian cycling great Robbie McEwen has slammed the Tour de France race judges, saying their ruling against Matt Goss “killed” the green jersey competition.
Goss received a heavy penalty when he and young Slovakian star Peter Sagan had a head-to-head sprint for six points at the end of Friday’s stage 12.
Goss was relegated one place coming off his line in the sprint, but more significantly received a 30-point penalty.
That has blown Sagan’s green jersey lead over the Australian out to 56 – before the sprint, it was down to just 24.
McEwen works with Goss on the Australian Orica-GreenEDGE team as their sprint coach, but he said regardless of his obvious bias the decision and penalty were wrong.
“I tried to be objective when I looked at the sprint and there was a little move there but not enough to warrant a disqualification,” McEwen told the letour.fr race website.
“That penalty far outweighs what they say he did … a relegation from sixth to seventh should have been the absolute maximum.
“A 30-point penalty is a joke and its completely killed that competition.
“I’ve been disqualified before (in a Tour sprint) … but I didn’t get penalised more points.
“I don’t know where they get that ruling from.
“That must be a new regulation because its just ridiculous.”
A 12-time Tour stage winner and three-time winner of the green jersey at the race, McEwen retired from competition two months ago.
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