"Coquard makes a move toward Rex... It wasn't pretty" - Intermarche boss calls Jasper Philipsen's Tour de France DNF 'a racing incident'

Tim Merlier might have edged out Jonathan Milan for the sprint win on stage 3 of the 2025 Tour de France, but the big talking point of the day was inevitably the race-ending crash of stage 1 winner and Green Jersey wearer Jasper Philipsen.

Intermarché – Wanty have their own Green Jersey ambitions at the Tour de France, and as such, had their riders right their in the mix during the crashes. Speaking to CyclingUpToDate and other assembled media at the finished line, team boss Aike Visbeek was explained how the Philipsen crash came about in his own team's view.

"I think it was just a racing incident," he begins his assessment. "You have one of the smallest sprinters, Bryan Coquard, moving toward Laurenz Rex — who’s one of the biggest lead-out guys. Coquard makes a move toward Rex, then goes the other way and ends up flipping him down. It wasn’t pretty. I just hope Jasper [Philipsen] comes out of it okay — it was a horrible sight."

Official confirmation of the injuries sustained by Philipsen haven't been announced at time of writing, but some have been quick to blame Coquard as he was the rider that actually made contact with the Belgian. Visbeek though, doesn't want to point fingers.

"It’s an intermediate sprint — anyone who wants to contest it can do so. In the last few years, they’ve often been a little uphill, which makes things slower and a bit safer. But today it was high-speed, flat, and total chaos. Laurenz had punctured about 10 km before that and wasn’t even with the lead-out train. He came from behind, so the whole thing was messy," he explained, shutting down talk of any potential disciplinary action. "No, I don’t think so. Like I said, Rex was going in a straight line. Coquard moved into him. I don’t think there’s anyone to blame directly."

In the finale there was again more crashes, with Rex himself going down this time. With some criticism of the UCI online for a perceived unsafe finishing parcours, Visbeek was asked his opinion. "Yeah, the ball is in the UCI’s court to address that. I can’t do anything about it. But it’s true — it’s more dangerous like this. That’s just the reality," he answered honestly.

How to make sprinting and after today, especially the intermediate sprints safer though? "If it’s a bit more uphill, the speed is lower and it’s safer. But I don’t think we can really blame the organizers here," Visbeek says of that particular sprint. "The stage was relatively easy, and that meant more riders had energy to contest the sprint. On a harder stage, fewer guys go for it, and it’s safer. But this is how it goes."