Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) is trying to avoid controversy over his supposed head grab of EF Education-Easy Post's Ruben Guerreiro on stage 2 of the Tour de France.

During the dangerous early road stage, with 36 km to go as the peloton was descending a narrow road along the coast, Cung was caught on camera raising his arm and grabbing the back of Guerreiro's helmet.

He appeared to grab Guerreiro's helmet for a moment, but Guerreiro released it and admonished him by waving his arm.

Kühn was then sanctioned by the UCI. He was spared from the race, but was fined 500 Swiss francs and had 20 points deducted from his UCI world ranking.

At the finish line in Naibol, the Swiss rider spoke to Cycling News.

"It was to say, 'Hey, look ahead,'" he explained.

"It was really hectic and there were a lot of spectators on the road. He was always looking back, and I said, 'Look ahead, it's really dangerous.'"

Kung denied the notion that there had been a violent altercation between the two and claimed that they had already made up soon after the incident.

"Everything is fine. We've talked to each other and everything is fine. It's racing and everyone wants to be safe.

Guerreiro could not corroborate his assessment or offer his opinion.

The Portuguese rider crashed hard on the run-in and finished more than 10 minutes behind.