Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is out of the Tour de France with serious injuries after a crash that sprint rival Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) has been blamed for. However, the overhead footage shows the chain of events causing the crash was begun by the Lidl Trek riders Jonathan Milan and Simone Consonni.
None of the riders - the Lidl Treks included - did anything deliberate to cause the crash. And none of their movements in the road, while sprinting for an intermediate sprint point, was reckless when examined individually.
However, Coquard's movement looked the most erratic and it was he who hit points classification leader, Philipsen, bringing him down hard. Because of that, it is the Frenchman who has been sanctioned for the crash; the blame squarely pinned on him.
A closer examination of what happened shows the incident was caused by a chain reaction through the riders, started by Lidl Trek - specifically Milan. Though Milan's movement was not out of the norm, it resulted in Coquard losing his balance. While Coquard stayed upright, he only did so after hitting Philipsen, now out of the race after winning stage 1 and holding the yellow jersey for a day.
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Jasper Philipsen hiç hatası olmayan bir yerde sert bir kaza geçirdi. Köprücük kemiği ve iki kaburgası kırılmış, ameliyat olacak ve tour de france onun için bitti. Şanssız bir an maalesef, üzdü… #TDFF2025
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Approaching the intermediate sprint where the crash occurred, Philipsen is involved in some barging and that incident is perhaps the wildest bit of maneuvering in the clip above, though it doesn't cause a crash.
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Just after that, Simone Consonni was leading out Lidl Trek team mate, Jonathan Milan. Consonni is looking back - never a good idea when on the front doing a lead-out - to see where Milan is.
Shortly after he takes that look, Milan comes off his back wheel. Milan was initially to the left of the white line in the centre of the road but then moves to the right of it. As he moves to his right, to open his sprint, it causes Coquard to be bumped a little into Laurenz Rex (Intermarché-Wanty).
When Coquard and Rex make contact, the French rider loses control and is bumped into Philipsen on his left, causing Philipsen to crash. It all happens very quickly, as the sprint is opening and as the riders are all tightly packed.
Coquard was emotional at the finish in Dunkirk, apologising for the crash, especially for the fact Philipsen is so badly injured he is out of the race. He also insisted he is "not a bad guy". While he was unsure exactly how it happened, he believed the back of Milan's bike may have hit his front wheel when the Italian moved to his right.
Coquard received a yellow card - along with a 500 CHF fine - from the Tour's race jury for an irregular sprint. If he gets another yellow, he is out of the race. Neither Alpecin-Deceuninck nor Intermarché-Wanty blamed Coquard, instead saying the crash was simply a very unfortunate racing incident.
Milan, who was 2nd on the stage to Tim Melier (Soudal QuickStep) appeared to make no reference to the incident after the stage, which saw him take the green jersey. Instead, he said he was "getting ever closer to hitting our first big goal of this Tour de France", in reference to almost winning, adding "eyes remaining firmly on the prize".
Alpecin-Deceuninck described Philipsen's injuries as follows: "Displaced fracture of the right collarbone, surgery will definitely be required. At least one broken rib, possibly two. He will be as soon as possible transferred to the hospital in Herentals, where he will undergo surgery."
