With a lump in his throat, Bryan Coquard stood before a melee of TV cameras after stage three of the Tour de France and apologised to Jasper Philipsen, having collided mid-stage with the Belgian, who had to abandon the race.
The incident came 60km from the line, in the dash for the day’s only intermediate sprint, and left the green jersey bloodied on the floor. Coquard was able to stay upright, before crashing himself in the final 300m of the stage into Dunkirk.
He later received a 500CHF (£460) fine for 'irregular sprinting' at the intermediate line, and was given a yellow card.
Almost an hour after Tim Merlier crossed the line as winner, Coquard hobbled back to his team bus. He first walked inside to gather himself, before returning to face the media scrum. The hands holding microphones squeezed in tightly as he started to speak.
"It was a bad day," Coquard began. "Making the green jersey abandon doesn’t make you feel good. I’ve looked at the replays a little bit; for me, at the moment, I don’t really know what happened. It seemed that [Jonathan] Milan launched his sprint, and my front wheel touched his derailleur, or maybe it was [Intermarché-Wanty's Laurenz] Rex that knocked me off balance. I really don’t know what happened."
Whatever it was that occurred, Coquard made clear, "it was not my intention to cause a crash."
"I was clearly knocked off balance," he said. "My foot came off the pedal, and I almost lost my shoe. I apologise – even if it wasn’t deliberate – I apologise to Philipsen and Alpecin[-Deceuninck]. I'm not a bad guy."
The mood outside the Cofidis team bus was understandably downbeat in the moments after the stage. French rider Damien Touzé was the first to return, telling the media that his birthday had been spent inside a "very nervous" peloton. His teammates soon followed, but all avoided eye contact with the waiting journalists.
Ahead of Coquard’s return, the sprinter's crashed bike was wheeled by a member of the team's staff through the crowd. The front wheel appeared shredded and unseated from the rim, the wreckage of his finish-line crash.
At 33 years old, and on his eighth appearance at the Tour, the Frenchman had begun the day hunting a maiden stage win. He ended up placing 175th, seventh from last, and holding his wounded arm.
“I expected you all to be here,” he told the media, his voice trembling and eyes welling up.
Did he have any further words he wanted to extend to Philipsen? “As I said, I’m sorry. It isn’t very pleasant, and it wasn’t deliberate.”
He then waited to see if there were any further questions, thanked those who had listened to him, and turned around, back into the sanctity of his team bus.
