Braking out of fear of a second yellow card and pain everywhere: Coquard speaks out the day after Philipsen crash

“It hurt, I felt like a truck had run over me during the night,” Coquard recalled upon waking up on Tuesday morning. “It feels more like a car accident than a bike crash. I’m in pain everywhere, but nothing is broken. I’m still in the Tour de France. Falling asleep wasn’t easy, not at all…”

On Monday, the Frenchman told his story, trying to hold back his tears. “You saw my state then. I was emotional and in a complicated state emotionally. But we talked a lot, we analyzed a lot; I needed opinions about the crash. When you saw me after the finish, I had only seen one video before stepping out of the bus. But I have finally put everything that happened into perspective.”

Seeing those videos reassured Coquard. “In this situation, there was never any intentional or aggressive action on my part. It was the start of Jonathan Milan’s sprint that made me move a bit. I was level with his derailleur, the Intermarché-Wanty rider came in as well, our handlebars touched, I got off balance, and the rest is history.”

Quitting the Tour is not something Le Coq is thinking about. “I never asked myself that question. As long as I can pedal, as long as I’m okay, as long as I can keep up with the peloton, I will continue. It’s the Tour de France. I can keep going, and I’m at quite a decent level. I just need to lick my wounds, and in three days the crash will be behind me,” the Frenchman looks ahead to new sprint opportunities this weekend.

Coquard will have to be careful, as he received a yellow card after stage 3. “Of course I’m going to sprint again, that’s not a question. But that yellow card is something I think about a lot. After two yellow cards, you’re out of the Tour. I think it’s very, very, very, very unfair. 99% of the peloton came to talk to me today and said it was unfair. I still feel very sorry for Philipsen, that dramatic incident in the race, but I spent the whole day braking and letting riders pass out of fear of getting a second yellow card,” said the Frenchman about stage 4.

“In the situation where I got it, I feel like I’d get a second one if someone crashed in my wheel,” continued the fast man from Cofidis. “I hope it fades with each day, but it’s hanging like a big sword of Damocles over my head.” Having the card rescinded won’t happen, as the organizers told Coquard on Tuesday morning that it wasn’t possible. “They told me the card was issued and it wasn’t possible to remove it.”