Thursday's 13th stage of the Tour de France brought more tragedy for Lotto-Soudal sprinter Caleb Yuan.

But the Australian's travails also affected other parts of the race. Alpecin Deceuninck eventually gave up the chase at the back of the breakaway group after Lotto Soudal faded from the front of the peloton without a sprinter.

The Belgian team was also fined 1,000 Swiss francs (1,015 euros) (200 francs for Euan) for assisting a rival sprinter in the chase.

Ewan, who was later listed in the Tour's medical report as having a "left knee trauma," was right behind the Alpecin-Desseuninck machine after crashing 72 km from the finish line; the UCI Bike Commissaire also reported that as the vehicle sped by, team director Michel Cornelisse, gesturing to him (see video below) and enthusiastically calling out to him.

Cornelisse's team would eventually be fined twice, once for Ewan "hiding behind or using the slipstream of a vehicle" and once for "failing to respect the instructions of the organizers and commissaires."

After the stage, Cornelisse told Dutch television station NOS that when Ewan followed his car, he was blocked by a police motorcycle and had nowhere to go.

"I don't know why the guy made such a big fuss. We didn't have a team car [for Ewan] and I wanted to take him."

"Then the commissaire came and I tried to accelerate, but there were two police bikes in front of me. I was already going 80 kilometers per hour. I couldn't go fast there. Ewan had almost caught up with the car, so I don't know why he panicked so much."

Cornelisse added that he was later thanked by the director of Lot Soudal, adding that he had an ulterior motive for helping Ewan get back to the peloton anyway.

"I had no feelings or anything for that man. He wasn't a player on my team, and that guy fell over.

"That's a whole different story," he noted, noting that Lotto Soudal would have helped Ewan further his pursuit of Alpecin Deceuninck had he returned to the peloton. Otherwise, he said, "the peloton would have finished 20 minutes behind.

"Then again, the commissaires don't understand much about cycling. It became very difficult. More teams could have supported him. It's a shame for Jasper Philipsen. We did everything we could, but it didn't work out."

In addition to the CHF 1,000 fine imposed on Alpecin Deceuninck, Ewan received a CHF 500 fine plus a one-minute time penalty for the overall, 10 points for the points prize, and one point for the mountains prize.

Ewan said after the stage that he felt pain in his knee and shoulder after the crash, but he would not be able to fully assess his feeling until Saturday morning before the 14th stage from Saint-Etienne to Mende.

"If it gets pretty warm, everything feels okay. But when it cools down a little bit, I think I'll start to feel it, but my knee is pretty sore and my shoulder is pretty sore. My collarbone is fine because I broke it last year.

"I don't think any of them are broken, but you have to be cool, and probably the next morning you'll know where they hurt. I think I'm okay now.