"I sent him a message and he didn't respond... That says a lot about him" - Maxim van Gils & Amaury Capiot continue war of words at Tour de France after stage 13 crash

There have been a somewhat surprisingly high number of spats between riders at the 2024 Tour de France. Wout van Aert and Jasper Philipsen have been exchanging words, Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard have traded barbs and now Maxim van Gils and Amaury Capiot are involved in a war of words.

It all comes back to a crash in the sprint on stage 13, in which Lotto Dstny's van Gils was reprimanded by the race jury afterwards. In the final kilometre of the day, Arkéa - B&B Hotels' Capiot came into contact with van Gils as both riders hit the deck quite hard. The race jury found the younger Belgian guilty, however Lotto Dstny and van Gils himself were far from happy with that decision.

"I think he (Capiot ed.) is putting on a show," van Gils told Het Nieuwsblad ahead of the start of stage 14. "I sent him a message and he didn't respond. This morning our press officer was with his press officer in order to set up a conversation between us to make up. And he refused. That says a lot about him."

"I think he's making a mistake by falling asleep in the sprint," Van Gils continues with fury. "Maybe there was a beautiful lady on the sidelines? He's ruining our day too. He should be able to look in the mirror himself, but apparently he can't. I did nothing wrong. I have re-watched the footage a few times. I am going to talk to the UCI about this, this is not right. I am the scapegoat. Probably because Amaury had already crashed, they did not want to punish him extra."

Capiot himself spoke out on the ordeal pre-stage 14 and was similarly scathing in his assessment of the other party. "I just did my job for Arnaud Démare until 700 meters from the line. When I was done, I looked over my shoulder to wave left. For me, it seemed the most logical option to choose the side of the barrier, because in the middle of the peloton you can be hit from two sides," Capiot recaps, giving his account of events. "If Maxim claims that gap is 50 centimetres, he could have just driven straight through that gap without putting his elbows. I blame him for giving an elbow and a headbutt. I'm very disappointed."

In something of an awkward moment, the two teams actually shared a hotel on the night following stage 13's controversy. "No one from the Lotto Dstny staff dared to look at me. There were no excuses. It is up to him to look for me and you can at least ask in the evening how the person who fell is doing," Capiot concludes.

See the incident for yourself down below and make up your own minds on who is correct!