Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took a hat-trick win at stage 7 of the the Tour de France in Bordeaux, denying Mark Cavendish a historic 35th Tour stage win, but the Belgian has had to respond to criticism of his racing line following a complaint from rival team bosses.
Speaking in an interview with Sporza on Friday evening, Philipsen said, "It's a pity that there is commotion about it" in response to protests lodged by Astana Qazaqstan team boss Alexander Vinokourov and Intermarché-Circus-Wanty boss Jean-François Bourlart.
Philipsen analysed the sprint on the show, pointing out that Cavendish’s line had similarly changed in the final metres of the race.
"The man in front [Mark Cavendish] always determines the line, so I jump to his wheel,” Philipsen said. “Mark also starts in the centre and then swerves to the right.
"Then it is logical that Girmay gets a bit stuck, but that's just how sprinting is. Things are always magnified in the Tour."
The tension around the sprint has no doubt been magnified by several sequential sprint stages with tumultuous finishes.
Stage 3 saw the UCI commissaires at the race review allegations that Philipsen moved from his line too much in the sprint, cutting off Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), before ultimately ruling that Philipsen was not at fault.
Then, only 24 hours later on stage 4, Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate and key lead-out man Mathieu van der Poel barged into Biniam Girmay to make space for Philipsen’s successful sprint in Nogaro. On that occasion, Van der Poel was fined 500 CHF and relegated from 16th to 22nd, losing 13 points in the green jersey standings in the process.
No doubt adding to the pressure is Cavendish's highly publicised attempt to break Eddy Merckx’s Tour de France stage win record, which he was painfully close to with his second-place finish yesterday.
Equally, though, speculation has circulated that the historic record attempt played to Philipsen’s favour – with Tour commissaires reluctant to have Cavendish’s record-breaking win take place through relegation. Following Van der Poel’s relegation and the series of complaints, there are those at the race who regard Philipsen as carrying an effective yellow card and a risk of relegation should another incident occur.
Belgian national coach Sven Vanthourenhout, however, regarded the controversy as a considerable overreaction. "If this happens on day 1, we won't even talk about it,” he said to Sporza.
Philipsen, similarly, seems undisturbed by the attention on his lead-out and sprint. "Too bad," he said of the general fuss.
With stage 8 likely to play to the race’s puncheurs, and the mountainous terrain of stage 9 and 10, it’s likely that stage 11 from Clermont-Ferrand to Moulins will be the next opportunity for a bunch sprint battle. There we will see what effect the tensions have had on Alpecin-Deceuninck's sprint strategy.
