"I will continue to try to win, as quickly and honestly as I can" - Jasper Philipsen refuses any interviews after his relegation

Jasper Philipsen refused to speak to the press on Friday after the sprint incident in which he and Wout van Aert were involved at the end of stage 6. The Alpecin-Deceuninck sprinter however apologized on his Instagram in the morning after the stage.

As if the third missed stage win in this Tour wasn't bad enough for Jasper Philipsen. The sprinter of Alpecin-Deceuninck was relegated by the race jury after his maneuver that impaired Van Aert's own sprint. The Visma | Lease a Bike rider called it "a bad habit" of Philipsen.

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After a night's sleep, Philipsen apologized to Van Aert via Instagram. "I absolutely did not try to box him in or ride him into the barriers," he says. "Like every sprinter, I am super competitive and I want to win every sprint, but not at the expense of the safety of another rider. I would never deliberately endanger anyone. I can't say that there will never be contact, because that is part of sprinting at the highest level. And there is no higher level than the Tour. I will continue to try to win, as quickly and honestly as I can."

Wout van Aert accepted the apology with a response to the post. "Apologies accepted," he wrote with a thumbs up.

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