Theo Bos has published his take on events that resulted in the hospitalisation of Daryl Impey after the two riders appear to tussle at the end of the Presidential Cycling Tour in Turkey on Sunday.
The incident has brought mass coverage thanks to a YouTube clip of the incident (below), in which Bos (Rabobank) appears to pull at Impey's yellow race leader's jersey and send him crashing into the metal barriers.
Impey (Barloworld) suffered cracked vertebrae in his lower back and neck, as well as chipped teeth and severe facial lacerations.
"I am sick of this," Bos wrote on his website. "Everyone who knows me, knows that I would never take such a deliberate risk to cause such a fall."
"I have sprinted for years at the highest level," Bos said relating to his many years as a top-level sprinter on the track. "But I am not a sprinter who takes extreme risks... it's not in my character."
Bos was three times a track world champion in the sprint - in 2004, 2006 and 2007.
Bos also responded to Lance Armstrong's comments made by the American on his Twitter feed, in which he called for Bos to serve a long suspension.
"On the YouTube clip, I can see how I seem to cause the fall on purpose. Even Lance Armstrong let me know that I must be suspended for a long time. I understand the response entirely if you only examine the video and then make a comment."
"However, it's different than it looks. I tried to keep him [Impey] back, but at that moment the only option was to try and avoid crashing."
"I hope that there are more pictures [of the incident], so that the pictures can be laid side by side and analysed. I have to prove my innocence."
Meanwhile, Impey is currently still in hospital in Turkey but is set to return to his native South Africa where he will visit specialists to have his face reconstructed. At present, he has to stay lying down and a special flight is being arranged to take him back home.
Impey's Barloworld team boss Claudio Corti issued a cutting statement via the squad's website yesterday:
"I'm certain that the race judges will take the necessary disciplinary action and adequately sanction Theo Bos for what he did. If they do not, every directeur sportif will be able to tell their riders to use their hands to make room for themselves during sprints."
Did Bos pull Impey to the ground? Or does the camera angle exaggerate the amount of contact? Have your say on the incident on the CW forum>>
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