Alexis Renard, a rider for the Cofids team, did not appreciate being singled out for causing a massive crash at the finish of the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday. He clashed with Briton Jake Stewart.
It was hot at the finish of the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday. While the day took place in very calm circumstances, the approach of the final sprint agitated the peloton. And the collective fall 2.5 kilometers from the finish put a strain on the physique of several riders and the ambitions of several sprinters including Jasper Philipsen, defending champion of the green jersey. While he was taking his leader Bryan Coquard in the final sprint, Alexis Bernard (Cofidis) was the victim of a mechanical problem that made him slow down suddenly before finishing on the ground, taking with him several other riders, including two from the Israël-Premier Tech team.
Coquard reveals that he caused Bernard’s fall
And they didn’t appreciate it. As a TV motorbike passed by, Alexis Bernard was filmed responding to Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech), sitting on the ground, who was clearly blaming him for the fall. “I went off the rails, asshole,” he shouted at the Dane. “I went off the rails, what do you want me to do?”
Stewart eventually recovered, helped by his leader Stephen Williams, and finished the stage in 169th place but in the same time as the day’s winner, Eritrean Biniam Girmay, since his fall occurred in the last five kilometers (times are frozen from this limit). After the race, Bryan Coquard revealed that he had unintentionally caused his teammate’s fall.
“It’s not a great sprint for us,” he confided. “Alexis Renard fell, and I was the one who made him fall. He derailed and when I tried to catch Mads Pedersen’s wheel, I swiped his front wheel. It’s already not nice to make someone fall, and when it’s your pilot fish, it’s even less funny. He told me he’s fine, that’s the main thing. Afterwards, it was a bit chaotic, I tried to do my best. I was in Pedersen’s wheel, I think (Phil) Bauhaus came into contact a bit and I had to stop pedaling in the last 50 meters. I wouldn’t have been able to win anyway. The Tour is on and I hope Alexis will be fine for the rest of the Tour.”
