It is certain that Patrick Lefebvre was not the most popular man on social media earlier this week. It is also certain that he does not care about that. But on Saturday afternoon in Nyborg, there was a sense that he was vindicated.

Fabio Jacobsen won the second stage of the Tour de France, erasing any doubts about the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl coach's team selection.

Cavendish chose Jacobsen, who won four stages and the green jersey last year but returned to the top of the sprint rankings after a life-threatening crash in 2020.

Cavendish is on the verge of tying the Tour's all-time stage win record with Eddy Merckx, and his sensational victory at last Sunday's British Championships only strengthened the case for his inclusion.

Lefebvre, however, ignored the clamor and responded to Jacobsen's confidence in him.

"I am an old and wise man, and the winner is always right.

"We don't need to justify ourselves. We put our hands on our chests and made our decision. Mark already knew since January. We called him this week. He was very clean and said, 'Patrick, I'm always there if you need me. But we didn't need him."

Cavendish was not the only controversial figure in Quick Step's Tour de France lineup. World champion Julian Alaphilippe, just recovering from a bad crash at the end of April, was deemed to be far from his best and was sent home. On top of that, newly crowned French champion Florian Sénéchal was also initially ruled out, although he was brought in to COVID as a replacement for Tim Declercq.

Despite the upheaval and the absences, Quick-Step Alphavinir couldn't have gotten off to a better start, with Yves Lampère winning the opening time trial in reverse and wearing the yellow jersey on the second stage, which Jacobsen won.

"It's not easy to leave the British champion, the French champion, and the world champion at home.

"People have to sell newspapers, but I don't care what they write about me. I am old and I have a thick skin. I'm here, they win, and the rest is all history."

"I don't want to answer to those people. What do they know about cycling?