Team Sunweb has announced that it has "fully accepted" the demotion of Max Warscheid, who appeared to head-butt another rider in the sprint finish of stage 4 of the Vuelta a España on Tuesday.

Warscheid finished third in El Puig behind Fabio Jacobsen and Sam Bennett, but was immediately notified by the UCI Race Review Committee that he had committed an infraction. He was deemed to have sprinted "erratically" and was relegated to the bottom of the main peloton.

The incident supposedly occurred with around 400m to go. Warscheid was about five back as his teammate Nikias Arndt led the pack to the finish line.

According to Team Sunweb, he apparently reacted to a dangerous move by another rider.

"Unfortunately, Max was deemed to be too aggressive in his reaction after another rider ran into him and was demoted from third place.

Juan Sebastian Morano, who leads out for Fernando Gaviria on UAE Team Emirates, seems to be the rider in question. He was seen near Warscheid in the final kilometer and was forced to the back of the pack.

Third place would have been one of Warscheid's strongest results of the season. The German won last year's Munsterland Giro, but has yet to win in 2019, his best result being second in Scheldeprij.

Jacobsen won stage 4 in a photo finish with Bennett, who had won stage 3. As the race heads into the hills, the sprinters will be held back for a few days.