A Cyclist Got Kicked Out Of The Tour De France For Punching Another Rider In The Face

NBC- Team Sky rider Gianni Moscon was expelled from the Tour de France on Sunday after he appeared to deliberately hit a fellow cyclist during the race. The Italian lashed out at French rider Elie Gesbert of Team Fortuneo while both were competing during Stage 15 from Millau to Carcassonne.

“I’m sorry for today’s incident, and I totally regret my actions,” Moscon said. “I would like to personally apologize to Elie Gesbert…. What happened was wrong and was a bad example coming from me to everyone, and I want to publicly apologize. … I make no excuse for it and accept the decision of the race organizers.”

I’m sure cycling fans and bike riders around the world are very upset about this video because it shows an absolute lack of sportsmanship and respect for your fellow biker. And I get that. But at the same time, people that love the sport of cycling have to realize this is how you grow your game. Myself and likely every single person that clicked this blog usually doesn’t give a fuck about the Tour de France now that we don’t have a doped up American winning it every year. And even then, we only cared about the result and our guy holding up a stuffed lion while wearing a yellow jersey.

But making cycling a no-holds barred contact sport would put asses in the seats and eyeballs on the event. You know how much anger must be pent up in those cyclists? They are grinding out competition against other world-class athletes by riding a bike up mountains, are sometimes packed ass-to-dick with their opposition, have to worry about their own teammates potentially cucking them out of a yellow jersey, and based on what happened to our pal Feits, many of the bikers in general have a hot-headed demeanor. Why not embrace that anger by allowing people to blow off some steam on their opponents? The whole Tour de France couldn’t be under Hardcore Rules because a 2200 mile bike race would be chaos. Even just one Anything Goes leg would be too much. But maybe certain stretches on straight aways could be no blood, no foul. Imagine cyclists using their brakes to avoid any of the good fighters riding near them? Gotta love when strategy comes into play. We could even turn those Hardcore Rules into Lumberjack Match Rules and get the fans involved, since they are apparently already involving themselves.

I’d shout out Gianni Moscon for potentially being a trailblazer to the sport of cycling, but it sounds like he’s kiiiiind of a scumbag.

The 24-year-old Moscon was suspended by Sky for six weeks last year for using a racial slur against an opponent.

Anyway, back to the Hardcore Rules Tour de France. The one rule I would instate is that no kicking is allowed. If a cyclist that makes his bones by never skipping leg day got off a clean kick at the face of a competitor, that competitor’s head may end up taking flight and rolling to the bottom of the French Alps. A man’s got to have a code.

P.S. I had to include the GOAT bad sportsmanship video. If this happened in 2018 instead of 2009, there would be petitions to get this girl thrown onto death row.