Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) has said he could not continue his sprint effort in the final 50 metres of today's stage 3 at the Tour de France. His main rival, and the eventual stage winner, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), moved to his right to close the door on Van Aert.
The gradual bend in the road, and a slight shift in the placement of the roadside barriers, also made the finish into Bayonne quite tricky.
After he crossed the line in first place - with Van Aert back in 5th - Philipsen could be seen on TV anxiously looking back at a replay of the sprint to check if he had done anything the race jury might not like. But ultimately, he said there were no gifts at the Tour and that every rider goes "all in".
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Van Aert explained while his own sprint was definitely impeded, it was up to others to judge if Philipsen's sprint was fair or not. He added he was well placed for the gallop thanks mainly to team mate Christophe Laporte's work.
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"I tried to pass Jasper on the right side. But yeah, then I lost my momentum a bit because we touched each other and I also touched the spectators. So in the final 50 metres, I couldn't do my sprint," Van Aert said before adding it was "hard to say" if his Philipsen's sprint was fair.
"I think it's also not up to me to judge," he said, but added that compared to yesterday - when he was furious at having missed a stage win - he was much more relaxed today.
