The Italian appeared to throw a bike at Jens Debusschere (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) in the aftermath of a large crash that took down a number of riders with 65 kilometres left in the race.
Moscon ripped the bike away from a pile of bikes and riders and into his Belgian counterpart after both had been involved in a crash into a ditch.
Moscon was subsequently disqualified by commissaires, with the 25-year-old pulled from the race several kilometres later. The Team Ineos rider removed and ripped up his numbers, before discarding them on the ground.
Debusschere, suffered only a few injuries to his hand and wrist, showing abrasions and a few cuts. "It was bleeding severely during the race, so I didn’t see how big the cut was. Now it looks OK and it’ll be gone in a day or two," Debusschere said to Cyclingnews after the race.
"I didn’t crash but I tumbled into the ditch and was crawling back out of it, then I had a bike – not even mine – thrown straight to my head. I had to raise my hand to protect myself in order not to get it into my face.
"The bike hit me with the chainwheel. At that moment I could have punched him. You’re full of adrenaline but then you realise that the best thing you can do is get back on your bike."
The Belgian sprinter was angered by Moscon's behaviour in what he considered a situation that arises regularly in racing.
"Why was this necessary? This is Flanders. This is typical stuff," said Debusschere. "You’ve got to be focused from start to finish. These are nervous races and it can happen that you need to stop or brake."
"It’s not only this incident, there’s many more incidents. If you ask around in the peloton about how their relation is with him (Moscon), then ninety per cent will react negatively."
Moscon is a repeat offender within the WorldTour peloton. He was expelled from the 2018 Tour de France for throwing a punch at Elie Gesbert. In 2017, he racially abused Kévin Reza at the Tour de Romandie.
He was also accused of deliberately causing Sebastien Reichenbach to crash and break his hip and elbow at the 2017 Tre Valli Varesine, though he was later cleared due to a lack of evidence.
Gabriel Rasch, Team INEOS sports director for the race, confirmed that the team didn't hve any issue with the decision to disqualify Msocon. "I agree it's something that should not have happened. We will speak to Gianni about it later this evening. Ultimately we respect the decision made by the commissaries."
Moscon was dropped for six weeks by his team after the Reza case, and banned for five weeks by the UCI after the Gesbert punch.
Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quickstep took out the victory in the race.
