Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was relegated following a deviation from his line in the final chaotic sprint on stage 6 of the Tour de France in which he finished in second place to Dylan Groenwegen (Jayco-AlUla), but the Belgian rider feels the penalty shifted undue focus on his sprinting.
Speaking in his column in Het Belang van Limburg, Philipsen emphasises that he felt it was the right course of action to apologise to Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), who claimed to be “boxed in” Philipsen in the sprint.
However, echoing his team manager Christoph Roodhooft’s comments, Philipsen revealed he felt unduly targeted.
“After what happened on Thursday, I do feel targeted. Much worse things have happened in the past,” he said.
Believing he will now be racing under a microscope, Philipsen said, “I know that I shouldn’t tense up during the upcoming sprint opportunities, but that’s easier said than done.”
“Up until now, I’ve been sprinting purely on instinct,” he continued. “I’m afraid that something like that will be more difficult and that I’ll have to be more aware of my movements during such a final sprint.”
Philipsen went into detail in the demoralising aftermath of the stage finish, where Groenwegen narrowly beat him to sprint victory.
“Immediately after the finish, I already had a suspicion that the victory was not for me,” he said. “Usually, you feel that as a sprinter.”
The news of declassification and then deductions to his green jersey points created a “serious pile-up of disappointments.”
“I can tell you that I didn't stay positive the whole time,” he said. “Especially because I was initially unaware of any wrongdoing. At no point did I have the intention to endanger a colleague.”
Van Aert’s original response to the incident was quite at odds with Philipsen’s perception of events. “I'm especially glad that I stayed upright,” Van Aert said after the stage finish. “But if there's no sanction, that would make me angry. They shouldn't throw him out of the Tour, but he should be declassified.”
“If they don't punish that severely, everyone thinks that anything goes. It's an increasingly big problem."
Despite some seemingly bad blood between the two sprinters, Van Aert was quick to accept Philipsen’s apology, posting on Philipsen’s Instagram post apology: “Apology accepted."
Philipsen also took aim at the portrayal of him as an antagonist in Netflix’s second series of Tour de France: Unchained, believing it uninvited an unfavourable perception of his sprinting. "I already pointed out that danger to my teammates during the altitude training. I literally said that 'a disqualification for an unconsciously performed manoeuvre' would be the greatest danger for me. And look... it unfortunately happened."
The two riders will enter stage 8 of the Tour de France with one fewer sprint contender as Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) has left the race. With the rolling nature of the stage, it is likely to be a battle between the sprint teams and the breakaway.
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