🎥 Caught between van der Poel and others, Paul Penhoët's shoulder pushes earn him a relegation and yellow card

The Lidl-Trek train took the lead after the GC contenders moved their trains aside. With Jasper Stuyven and Edward Theuns, among others, Milan was brought into a 'perfect' position, as he said afterward. There was a fierce battle for Milan's wheel, with Mathieu van der Poel emerging as the winner from the final corner.

But it wasn't easy for the Dutchman. The Alpecin-Deceunink rider ended up in Milan's slipstream under the red flag for the final kilometer, which earned him a few shoulder pushes. This brought Van der Poel into contact with Paul Penhoët. The Groupama-FDJ rider was squeezed between Emilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies) and Van der Poel, dishing out a few hits but losing Milan's wheel to Van der Poel.

Immediately afterward, the Frenchman found himself shoulder to shoulder with several colleagues, after which he lost more places. Penhoët eventually finished fifth, but the jury reversed that result after the race. Penhoët has been relegated for his behavior in the run-up to the sprint. The 23-year-old has been moved back to 116th place. Penhoët also received a yellow card, a fine of 500 Swiss francs, and six points deducted from the points classification.

Text continues below, with images of the last kilometer .

Out of the action and on the left side of the road, Fred Wright positioned himself in a completely different way. The British rider was positioned by a teammate and ended up on Van der Poel's wheel coming out of the last corner. "I knew there was one wheel to pick on that kind of bunch sprint," Wright said on the team website of Bahrain Victorious. "Having been teammates with Jonny, I know he’s got something quite special in terms of sprinting. Rob put me perfectly on his wheel, but unfortunately not much more I could have done to be honest, but yeah, second — I am really happy with it. We rode really well today, I think. We kept the GC boys in front, and then, yeah, to get a result in a sprint like that, I’ll take it – I’m happy with that."

The 25-year-old Wright had thought carefully about the final. "I said to Rob, there is going to be a pause into the last km because it sort of drags over the bridge — stick me on Jonny’s wheel."

And that's almost what happened. Only Van der Poel was still in between. Wright eventually secured second place between Milan and Van der Poel (third). Wright also sees opportunities for himself in the third stage. "To be honest I think looking at the start tomorrow, it might be quite a big fight for the breakaway. You saw today people getting quite excited, trying little moves here and there. Lidl-Trek will try and control, but the start is solid, so we could have a breakaway day — so maybe I’ll mix in with that as well."