Jens Debusschere, who was the first to cross the finish line at Koolskamp Koers last Friday, but was disqualified afterwards, contacted Dylan Groenewegen and Michael Boogerd, sports director of Roompot. Groenewegen had crashed and fractured his patella.

“Of course I don’t feel good about this situation. The crash and consequences for Dylan are much worse than the victory I missed out on. I wanted to let him and his team know that I didn’t want this, of course didn’t do this on purpose and didn’t have the intention to influence the sprint in any way," he said.

“We shortly talked about the sprint of which I thought there wasn’t enough space to pass me by. My reaction on Twitter shortly after the race was one of disappointment, but was wrong. The decision of the jury is what it is. I really appreciate the way Michael and Dylan reacted. He is young and talented, I don’t want to have the reputation that I fight unfair to get results. No doubt we will meet very often in the future and I hope we can leave this behind us.”