Court of Arbitration for Sport upholds Peter Sagan's disqualification from Tour de France

Peter Sagan will remain disqualified from the Tour de France after the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected an application from the world champion and his Bora-Hansgrohe team to overturn the decision.

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The German team filed an urgent 'Application for Provisional Measures' to CAS to try and have Sagan reinstated to the Tour, after commissaries disqualified him for his involvement in a crash with Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data).

Sagan was initially docked 30 seconds from GC and 80 points from the green jersey standings, but the Tour de France race jury later decided to expel the Slovakian from the race.

Cavendish also left the race after breaking his shoulder blade in the incident that took place on stage four.

UCI rules state that the commissaires' decision can not be appealed against, and it seemed almost impossible to reinstate Sagan with the Tour already at the end of its sixth stage to Troyes on Thursday.

The CAS released a statement in the mid-afternoon on Thursday, confirming that the stage three winner Sagan would remain disqualified.

"The Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) issued a decision rejecting an urgent request for provisional measures filed by the Slovak cyclist Peter Sagan and the Denk Pro Cycling teamin the afternoon of 5 July 2017," the statement read.

"The rider and team appealed the exclusion of the rider by the UCI Commissaires Panel on 4 July 2017 following an incident during the sprint phase at the end of the 4thstage of the 2017 Tour de France (Mondorf-les-Bains to Vittel)."

"Accordingly, Peter Sagan remains disqualified from the 2017 Tour de France."

"[The decision] just arrived, we tried everything," Enrico Poitschke, team sports director said after the stage six finish.

"In our eyes, it was not the best decision from the jury. We don't have the real answer, only the information of the decision, so we have to wait to hear why."

The lawyers will speak with general manager Ralph Denk after returning from Switzerland and provide information on the decision.

Denk signed Sagan for an estimated €4 million annually starting this 2016 season and joined the WorldTour ranks as a result. With Sagan, the Tour had offered them a precious publicity opportunity.

"It's very hard this disqualification, especially when we saw the pictures in the last days, Peter didn't do anything wrong. We don't accept it, and that's why we [appealed to CAS]," Poitschke said.

"The Tour de France for every team, it's the biggest goal of the year. We had small goals and very big goals. He goes out on a wrong decision, and it's a disaster for the team, for sure."

Sagan will now begin to build for a third World Championship title in a row in Bergen, Norway later this year.

"He'll need a few days off to recover, also mentally because that was a hard one for everyone on the team," coach and sports director, Patxi Vila said. "You have to move on, keep training to try to win the Worlds the third time in a row.

"We have to see what he does now training- and racing-wise. Before it was going to be the Tour de France, the Eneco Tour, Quebec and Montreal, and the Worlds.

"Now we are going to have to change that."