Jordi Meeus relegated after dangerous sprint: "To get relegated afterwards was the wrong decision I believe"

The opening stage of the Volta ao Algarve was a stressful one, with strong winds and high-speed crashes in the final hour of racing, many didn't survive the furious finale in the peloton. Upon Quick-Step's accelaration in the final kilometers, Meeus was the only rider who managed to latch onto the leadout perfectly, and had the legs to finish the final sprint in second place despite not being able to match Jakobsen. However later he was relegated due to a dangerous move where he almost took Alexander Kristoff against the barriers.

"We worked well the whole day, and in the end we have been in the right position to avoid the crash. the boys helped me perfect to catch the wheel of Jakobsen, but today I didn’t have the legs to challenge him. Still, I was happy with the result, because after Saudi I lost a few days of training because I didn’t feel well," Meeus said regarding how the day went.

As for the jury's decision to relegate him in the sprint, he disagrees it was the right one: "To get relegated afterwards was the wrong decision I believe. I didn’t change line and felt we rode a normal sprint. Anyway I have to accept the decision and I’ll try to fight back the next days.“

Despite the incident Meeus rode a strong stage. He has another chance to succeed which will come on stage three which should again come down to a sprint. BORA - hansgrohe were very active today and they should be near the head of the peloton a lot throughout this week.