Sprinters Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) appeared to have put tensions aside after an angry moment between the pair arose during stage 2 of the Tour de France on Sunday.
Just after the day's intermediate sprint at Énocq – where the peloton were battling it out for fifth place – Milan took the win from the bunch and 11 points, but was then seen shouting and gesticulating at Girmay for several moments, with the Eritrean rider appearing annoyed back.
It wasn't immediately clear what had happened in the sprint to anger the Italian so much, but the overhead shot showed Girmay elbowing Milan after the Lidl-Trek rider tried to push into the Intermarché lead-out.
A segment of race radio broadcast on TV appeared to show Milan saying he felt Girmay was crowding his space, with Lidl-Trek saying similar to Eurosport's motorbike reporter Jens Voigt during the stage.
However, despite the animosity on the road, Milan went over to the Intermarché-Wanty bus post-stage to share a handshake with Girmay.
Intermarché also shared the moment on Instagram, captioning the photo with: "That’s cycling. Tour de France gets intense and we love watching the champions competing with rivalry and respect."
After the stage, Milan was asked about what had happened. He explained that all had been settled.
"Nothing special, just a racing incident, he went a bit wide, I got nervous," he told Tuttobiciweb.
"But we cleared things up right away and we shook hands here after the finish line too, because there is mutual respect and esteem between us and these moments happen where there is a bit of nervousness in the group."
Intermarché-Wanty immediately made a joke of the situation on their social channels, saying "Apparently Milan is not happy that Bini eats pizza with pineapples" when sharing a clip of the clash.
The continued the banter on the Tour de France official account's post of the sprint, commenting "Best pizzas come from Intermarché markets anyway" and poking fun at fellow supermarket sponsor Lidl.
However, though the teams may have been light-hearted and conciliatory post-stage, with any personal hostility put to the side, the racing rivalry is set to resume on Monday with another sprint chance expected in Dunkerque at the end of stage 3.
After both missing out on victory on stage 1, won by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) as several of his rivals were on the wrong side of a split, Milan and Girmay will be eyeing up a new chance to go for victory, and another day of battling each other.
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