"You can’t say that Philipsen is a dangerous sprinter" - Johan Museeuw believes Jasper Philipsen doesn't deserve the bad image he now has

Nothing but tough Tour de France for Jasper Philipsen who, despite two first and two second places is still nowhere near the green jersey wearer Biniam Girmay. The Belgian had bad luck to get caught up in a crash on third stage, while in stage 6 it was a strike of jury who relegated Philipsen from second place. According to former pro Johan Museeuw it's a bit unfair that his compatriot is now "enjoying" a bad image in the peloton.

"In the Tour de France, everything is under a magnifying glass," Museeuw begins for WielerRevue. If you fail once as an organization, you would rather get shit on your head. That they would relegate Démare and Cavendish, I didn't doubt that for a second. But be careful, we are going to get a lot of relegations in the future."

"Cycling is starting to resemble football, where you cheer for a goal, but the VAR reverses everything a moment later. The ASO started by demoting Jasper Philipsen and that trend is now being continued. You can’t do anything else, can you..."

"In the past, much more happened in the sprints than now. Just think back to the antics of Abdoesjaparov. In that respect, this is a light version. We live in a time where nothing is tolerated anymore. Be careful, I am an advocate of it. People are applying the rules more consistently and that is also good."

Despite his two stage wins, a green jersey seems to be just a distant dream to Philipsen at this point. Mostly due to a relegation on stage 6. "Bullshit. You can’t say that Philipsen is a dangerous sprinter. Absolutely not. He was badly portrayed in that Netflix series and then at a certain point it’s all a matter of adding up. I know from experience that once you get an image stuck on you, you don’t get rid of it that quickly."

Although Museeuw is in favor of strict rules, he also sees the disadvantages. "Personally, I think it’s a shame for the sprinters. A sprint can have a smell. Sprinters just crawl through small holes. I can live with that, but it will be difficult to regulate this consistently in every race and not just in the Tour de France."