Eddy Lissens, the motorcyclist who was responsible for the hard fall of Julian Alaphilippe on Sunday in the Tour of Flanders, made himself heard for the first time on Monday. The 64-year-old Belgian is shocked by the criticism he received on social media and believes he has done nothing wrong.
The 28-year-old Alaphilippe formed a leading group with Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert in the final phase of ‘Flanders Most Beautiful’ and rode in third position. The Frenchman was 35 kilometers late from the finish because his fellow escapees were sending around a motorcycle, collided with Lissens and crashed hard.
“I’ve been doing this for twenty years and something like this has never happened to me,” said the criticized motorcyclist in conversation with The last news. “Afterwards I saw that Alaphilippe was just talking into his microphone and couldn’t avoid me anymore. I feel guilty, even though I can’t help it.”
Still, Lissens received a lot of criticism, especially because of his position on the road. Team boss Patrick Lefevere of Deceuninck-Quick-Step, Alaphilippe’s team, judged that the motorcyclist should have ridden on the left side of the road and on the right “nothing to search had”.
‘I didn’t do anything unusual at all’
Lissens says that he deliberately chose to descend on the right side of the road with the Shimano engine, with the aim of ending up behind the leading group. The television engines chose the left side.
“Whether we should have done this on the other side too? Anyone who says such a thing has never ridden in a race,” said Lissens. “I didn’t do anything unusual. Things like that happen a hundred times in a game. This was just an unfortunate moment.”
Still, Lissens naturally left the bizarre incident with a bad feeling. “I feel sorry for Alaphilippe. His injuries are bad, but he also had the chance to win the Tour and that makes me feel. After the game I also got all the sins in the world on social media. That affects me. me very deep. “
The Tour of Flanders was eventually won by Van der Poel. The Dutch champion on the road was too strong for his Belgian rival Van Aert in an exciting sprint-`à-deux.
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