Merlier: 'They prefer to crash rather than sprint'
Although he did not name anyone in particular, Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quick-Step) had some choice words for other riders in the Tour de France peloton after a crash in the stage 17 finale kept him out of contention for the victory in Valence.
"Some riders simply push themselves a bit further than necessary," he told Sporza. "They prefer to crash rather than sprint. The good news is that I didn't crash today."
Merlier was a little ways down in the bunch when Cyril Barthe (Groupama-FDJ), Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL), and Alexis Renard (Cofidis) came together going under the flamme rouge on Wednesday. Bittner and Barthe went down, causing a pileup right in front of Merlier. Although he avoided going down himself, he was caught behind the crash. Up ahead, Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) sprinted to his second win of the race, while Merlier was left frustrated at missing out on what could be his last chance to sprint in this Tour.
"I was moving up and made the wrong choice twice, taking the right side of the roundabout," he said. "That was my own fault, but I thought I was going to put things right." [Sporza]
