Jasper Philipsen and Arnaud Démare react to disaster ending to Tour de France sprint - "Mathieu van der Poel did not feel well"

Stage 12 of the Tour de France has been marked by the unfortunate crash that has taken out Primoz Roglic from the race. But in the final sprint there was also a lot happening. Mark Cavendish and Arnaud Démare were relegated in the final sprint and the latter comments on it; whilst Jasper Philipsen is left collecting pieces from a horrible day overall for Alpecin-Deceuninck.

“It is a bit of the story of the day that I was not positioned well. Mathieu van der Poel did not feel well and Jonas Rickaert fell. We all had a bad feeling today," Philipsen shared with Sporza. The Belgian team ultimately had an outright bad day. Rickaert and Soren Kragh Andersen were involved in the two separate mass crashes on the day and both reached the finish outside the time limit, and are out of the Tour. Mathieu van der Poel was not able to support in the final leadout of Jasper Philipsen, who even with the relegations had to settle only with a fourth place - that sees him lose even more points to Biniam Girmay in the green jersey competition.

“In this Tour it is also often a chaotic sprint. There is not really a clear lead-out, today again. They were all individual riders. That also made it difficult for me to benefit from a lead-out and get back to the front," Philipsen admit. "Although I also made a few wrong decisions. I am looking forward to tomorrow. The green jersey? Girmay is riding a very good Tour and it almost seems to be within reach for him," he accepts, with the gap now being of 107 points.

In the final sprint we saw Arkéa - B&B Hotels do an impressive leadout for a team of their caliber, and Arnaud Démare was launched to a top result on the day - a victory would absolutely make the team's Tour. But as he launched, he closed in Wout van Aert on the barriers (a deja vu for the Belgian) and Démare was ultimately relegated for it. “I just want to remember the positives,” the veteran told at the end of the day. 

“I remember the sprint I rode today after excellent work by my train and especially Dan McLay (the man who set him up for the line, ed.). I started from far away, because that's what I like and I believed in the victory. This sprint was good for morale, today we found our groove as a team.”

The relegation came shortly after the finish. “What happened to me only motivates me more for the next stages in this Tour that could end in a mass sprint. A good flow has developed at Arkéa-B&B Hotels. We will continue in this way and do everything we can to continue to shine," he concluded.