Charged with irresponsible sprinting manoeuvres in the crash-marred finish of stage 1 at Circuit Cycliste Sarthe, Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling), the day's winner and mark of Nacer Bouhanni's (FDJ) post-race allegations has said he had no intentions of interrupting the French champion's sprint to the line. Pelucchi allegedly squashed Bouhanni before commencing his sprint.

“I do not like to lose but today I came across a reckless madman,” a fuming Bouhanni explained to tuttobiciweb.it after the race. “In the sprint I was on the wheel of [Bryan] Coquard and when I wanted to move left with 200 meters to go Pelucchi hooked my handlebars. This guy is a menace!”

The alleged swing by the stage winner Pelucchi caused Bouhanni to deviate from his line and he consequently finished in fourth place. Pelucchi, however, was saddened such comments would fall his way and noted that his actions were inadvertent and that he would not risk his or another rider's life simply to win a bike race.

“I'm happy for this victory and I want to thank the team but I'm saddened by the statements made by Bouhanni who called me a ‘public danger’,” said Pelucchi.

Yesterday’s victory was Pelucchi's first win since taking stage 3 at last year's Ronde de l'Oise. In 2012 the 24-year-old spent the season with Europcar before signing with the recently established Swiss IAM Cycling Project for 2013.