Bjorn Leukemans of Wanty-Groupe Gobert has defended the riders who decided to cross the train tracks while the barriers were down during Paris-Roubaix.

He says it was impossible to stop in time as you risked taking down other riders, although he knows what he did was wrong.

"The peloton arrived at 50kph, the barriers went down and I didn't hear any bells. You can't see red lights at such a moment," Leukemans told Sporza. "Actually, I did something wrong, but at the moment I crossed, it was certainly not life-threatening. It is slightly different for riders who were in the peloton and rode around when the barriers were all the way down. On the images I saw a rider slalom between the barriers. Of course that's playing with fire.”

He agreed with the decision of the organisers to not punish any of the riders who made the crossing, saying it was too hard to determine who crossed legally and who didn’t.

"It is very difficult to determine who exactly kept riding. You must also put yourselves in our place. We are fully concentrated on the race. In addition, we know that there are no clear rules or procedures in such a situation."

"You don't know what the jury will decide, if you stop you let that group go. Secondly, if you slam on the brakes, a bunch of riders might crash behind you and some of them will be on the tracks. I don't know whats safest."