"I sent him a message and he didn't respond... That says a lot about him" - Maxim van Gils and Amaury Capiot continue their war of words on the Tour de France after their crash on stage 13

The number of feuds between riders at the 2024 Tour de France has been surprisingly high. Wout van Aert and Jasper Philipsen exchanged a few words, Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard exchanged barbs and now Maxim van Gils and Amaury Capiot are engaged in a war of words.

This all came about because of a crash in the sprint of stage 13, during which van Gils (Lotto Dstny) was reprimanded by the race jury. In the last kilometre of the day, Capiot (Arkéa – B&B Hotels) came into contact with van Gils, causing both riders to hit the ground hard. The race jury found the young Belgian guilty, but Lotto Dstny and van Gils himself were not at all happy with this decision.

“I think he (Capiot, editor’s note) is putting on a show,” van Gils told Het Nieuwsblad before the start of the 14th stage. “I sent him a message and he didn’t answer. This morning, our press officer was with his press officer to arrange a conversation between us to reconcile. And he refused. That says a lot about him.”

“I think he made a mistake by falling asleep in the sprint,” Van Gils continued furiously. “Maybe there was a beautiful lady on the sidelines? He’s also ruining our day. He should be able to look at himself in the mirror, but apparently he can’t. I didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve watched the footage several times. I’m going to talk to the UCI about it, it’s not right. I’m the scapegoat. Probably because Amaury had already crashed, they didn’t want to punish him further.”

Capiot himself spoke about the ordeal of stage 14 and was equally scathing of his opponent. “I just did my job for Arnaud Démare until 700 meters from the line. When I had finished, I looked over my shoulder to signal to the left. For me, it seemed more logical to choose the side of the barrier, because in the middle of the peloton, you can be hit from both sides,” summarizes Capiot, giving his version of events. “If Maxim claims that the gap is 50 centimeters, he could have gone straight through this gap without using his elbows. I blame him for elbowing and headbutting. I am very disappointed.”

In a somewhat awkward moment, the two teams shared a hotel the night after the controversy of the 13th stage. “No one from the Lotto Dstny staff dared to look at me. There was no excuse. It’s up to them to look for me and we can at least ask in the evening how the one who fell is doing,” Capiot concluded.

See the incident for yourself below and make up your own mind about who is right!

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