Tour leader Sagan hits out at crazy peloton

By Julien Pretot CHERBOURG, France (Reuters) - Although he is likely to celebrate taking the Tour de France yellow jersey on Sunday, world champion Peter Sagan said he does not enjoy himself on his bike as races have become a free-for-all. The Slovak switched his rainbow jersey for the yellow, but he was not all smiles especially as his Tinkoff team leader Alberto Contador crashed again and lost time after cracking in the finale of the second stage. "Riders ride like they don't care about life," Sagan told a news conference, hinting safety issues are not just to be blamed on in-race motorbikes. "You never know if you'll be in the race the day after." With top teams obsessed with riding in the front to protect their leaders, jockeying for position has become tougher. "I don't know how to explain stupid crashes. Nobody brakes so if you don't brake for sure you're going to crash," said Sagan, who believes riders have lost respect for the big names in the peloton. "Before there was respect and when somebody was making something stupid someone would throw a bottle at them," he said. "In 2010 when I started, it was a little bit different. Now I can feel things have changed a lot. There is no respect in the peloton, a lot of riders don't care, they just want to stay in the train behind their guys." Former time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara, whose voice counts in the peloton, said before the start of the race that he was worried about safety. "Crashes are never excluded because in the beginning of the Tour, you have 22 teams riding a team time trial," the Swiss said. Asked if he could be heard by the peloton because of his status as a world champion and yellow jersey holder, Sagan said: "It's very hard, because today I'm in yellow but maybe tomorrow I'm home." (Editing by Ed Osmond)