"Too fast to brake" - How a Tour de France rider bunny hopped over a rival mid-sprint

Mads Pedersen crashed hard on the finale of stage 5 in this Tour de France, against the barriers but luckily not to catastrophic consequences as other crashes that have taken place in recent years. The Lidl-Trek rider fell back into the road and just moments later had Axel Zingle bunny hop over him at high speed.

Zingle turned out to be an unlikely headliner on a day where Mark Cavendish's stage win occupied most of media's attention. The Frenchman explained after the stage exactly what happened through his point of view. “It happened very quickly. I had finished my job for Bryan [Coquard], I had moved aside. For me, the race was already over even though I was still going at 60 km/h. I didn’t expect to have a fall in front of me.”

Zingle was at the wrong place at the wrong time, as Mads Pedersen crashed right in front of him. A fall seemed to be inevitable but the Frenchman, who is set to sign for Team Visma | Lease a Bike next year, did the unthinkable: He successfully did a bunny hop over the Dane and held it upright.

“I was coming too fast to brake, and I didn’t want to fall. I had my hands in a snug fit, I was ready so I tried and it went through. I felt that I had touched him, I hope I didn’t hurt him. But he has strong skin, I hope he’ll be in good shape tomorrow," Zingle concluded.

In fact he was relatively correct, as despite the tough fall Pedersen did not suffer any fractures and will continue the race. Stage 6 will take the riders from Mâcon to Dijon in a day where the sprinters will have another opportunity and both riders are expected to be towards the front of the peloton once again. However, this is in case the crosswinds on the day don't cause splits in the peloton before it reaches the large French city.