The Tour de France re-entered France with Monday's third stage and with it came the first chance for the sprinters to do what they do best, but once again Wout van Aert missed out on the chance to take his 10th career stage win.
After narrowly missing out to late escapee Victor Lafay in San Sébastián, the Belgian ended up in fifth place in Bayonne, having been squeezed between stage winner Jasper Philipsen and the barriers on the uphill run to the line.
But in contrast to the previous afternoon, Van Aert seemed in good spirits at the Jumbo-Visma team bus past the finish line. After a quick warm-down, a debrief with arriving teammates, and a glance over his shoulder to check out replays of the finish, he told the media his version of events.
"I was well placed – especially Christophe Laporte did a really good job for me to bring me in position," Van Aert said of the tricky finale, which included a hairpin 2km out and a curving road to the finish which tilted uphill.
"I tried to pass Jasper on the right side," he added, having jumped from the wheel after riding the Alpecin-Deceuninck train along with Laporte in the final kilometre. "But yeah, then I lost my momentum a bit because we touched each other and I also touched the spectators. So in the final 50 metres, I couldn't do my sprint."
At the front, Philipsen went on to take his third stage win in two years as Van Aert drifted back to fifth, his momentum – and with it the chance to take victory – gone. There would be a brief pause after the finish as UCI commissaires reviewed the footage of the final sprint before Philipsen's win was duly confirmed.
Van Aert said that it was "hard to say" whether Philipsen's sprint was fair, while Jumbo-Visma directeur sportif Arthur Van Dongen told Cyclingnews and Cycling Weekly that the problem was more with the curving road to the finish.
"I think it's also not up to me to judge," Van Aert said, before Van Dongen had his say. "Wout started his sprint in third position, exactly what we planned," he added. "The case is that the UCI rules say the last 200m should be a straight line and that's not the case. It's normal then that things like this happen, but it's up to the jury to decide. It is what it is.
"Maybe but it's part of cycling that the rider who leads the sprint takes the straightest line to the finish. But Wout is OK with it. It's not up to us to decide what's good or wrong. It's up to the jury."
In any case, the third stage of the Tour de France is now over, the podium ceremonies and post-race press conference are done with, and Jasper Philipsen is the winner. Wout van Aert will have to wait another day to add to his collection of wins, though it might not come tomorrow, a flatter finish which Jumbo-Visma might sit out, said Van Dongen.
But, despite another unlucky day and another stage without a win, Van Aert signed off with a smile.
"Compared with yesterday I am relaxed," he concluded before heading off to another round of post-stage interviews outside the Jumbo-Visma bus.
