Tim Merlier shook hands with Jasper Philipsen on the podium of Classic Brugge-De Panne but the Soudal-Quick Step sprinter was not happy about having to hit the brakes with 200 metres to go after a shoulder-to-shoulder clash with his rival.
Merlier waved his hand at Philipsen after the finish, displaying clear frustration. The Milan-San Remo winner hit the line first and so shrugged off any suggestion of wrongdoing but Merlier wasn’t happy to finish second.
“If I hadn’t held back, the spring will be over for one person,” Merlieir said in an interview with Wielerflits, indicating the consequences for Philipsen, who hit him from behind as both sprinters dived to go along the barriers to pass Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) who had started the sprint.
The UCI commissaires looked at the video replay of the incident but deemed it was a racing incident. Merlieir wasn’t convinced.
“Jasper is lucky that I am a good rider,” Merlier said.
“If I’d pushed through, someone would have gone over the barriers. I probably wouldn’t have fallen but I was probably going to be the one blamed. Jasper was coming up and I wanted to start my sprint too but then suddenly I got a push in the hip.
”I stopped pedalling.”
Philipsen, meanwhile was somewhat more relaxed about the clash. “I went shoulder to shoulder with Tim – a bit of a shame – but in the end it was a good sprint and I’m happy to win,” he said after the finish.
“It was difficult to guess what Van Poppel was going to do and I chose which side to go on, and just in time we were able to avoid a crash,” he added.
Merlier and Philipsen were teammates at Alpecin-Fenix and there is a sense of respect between two of the fastest printers in the world but Merlier warned he won’t hit the brakes next time.
“Will this change my relationship with Jasper? No. The relationship itself is good. Last year we trained together a few times in Tenerife, but we were no longer teammates.
“We now do the same job. I won’t just accept defeat next time.”
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