As Tim Merlier and his Soudal-QuickStep team celebrated their third sprint victory at the Tour de France, Jasper Philipsen could only roll past his rival's team bus, dismount and quickly disappear onto the Alpecin-Premier Tech bus to watch a replay of the sprint and try to understand why he again missed out on victory.
Alpecin-Premier Tech again set up Philipsen with a three-rider lead-out train in the final kilometre, avoiding the late crash, dragging him to the front, and with Mathieu van der Poel his last man. Philipsen kicked first but was soon matched by the other sprinters, with Merlier coming late off the wheel and through the middle to win.
