"They only looked at Bauhaus. Cavendish and Philipsen had done nothing wrong" - Lidl-Trek DS can't come in terms with Tour de France jury's rationale

The Tour de France turned out to be a disappointment for Mads Pedersen. The Dane entered the race with ambition to fight for the green jersey as well as stages. However the consequences of his crash in the finale of the fifth stage made it impossible to continue in the race for the Lidl-Trek leader.

"Mads has cycled on the road for the first time. He is doing a bit better, but a fracture has been found in his shoulder blade," sports director Steven de Jongh tells De Avondetappe. "His fall was a big disappointment. We had really marked stage eight and nine. In the eighth stage there was really an ideal finish for Mads. If you can't get back on that morning, that's very sour."

Pedersen crashed in the first week of the Tour in the stage to Saint Vulbas. In full sprint, the strong rider crashed into the barriers, after which he made a solid smack on the ground. "When I see the sprint again, I get pissed off again. In my opinion, they should have relegated two sprinters there," says De Jongh, who is referring to Mark Cavendish and Jasper Philipsen.

"They started sprinting on the right and finished on the left. After that they did it. Two days ago you had Arnaud Démare. He closed the door on the right, but that was half a meter. This was a full width of the road that they crossed and nothing was done. I spoke to the jury then and they only looked at Bauhaus. Cavendish and Philipsen had done nothing wrong (according to the jury, ed.)."

De Jongh has a hard time to come in terms with such decisions. "I thought that was quite a statement. In my eyes, it really wasn't possible. You just know that if two sprinters start on the right and then go all the way to the left, the peloton will follow. All the riders who are on the left... At a certain point, there is no more space."