The Tour de France’s leading sprinter Jasper Philipsen has backed Mark Cavendish to win a record-setting 35th stage during this year’s race, saying that the whole sport is willing on the Briton.
Philipsen won the race’s green jersey and four stages in 2023, and is widely expected to add to his tally of six career stage wins in the forthcoming weeks.
Up to eight stages of the 2024 race appear to be reserved for the sprinters, and Cavendish, 39, only needs one win to become the outright stage race record holder; he currently holds the title with Eddy Merckx on 34.
Speaking two days before the race gets underway in the Italian city of Florence, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Philipsen said: “Everybody wants to see Mark win a 35th stage. I’ve always been a big fan of Mark Cavendish and it would be a historic moment if he can reach it.”
On stage seven of last year's Tour, Cavendish looked set to win, only to be beaten by Philipsen. A day later, Cavendish crashed out of the race with a broken collarbone.
The first day that is slated to go the way of the sprinters is the third stage that finishes in Turin, before a further three opportunities ahead of the first rest day.
Philipsen’s principal rivals are expected to be Belgian national champion Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla), but he is also anticipating a strong Cavendish, despite the Manxman only winning three races in his 18 months riding for Astana-Qazaqstan.
“He will be good and there [in contention] for sure,” Philipsen said. “[But] it’s not that I am going to be giving away a sprint. We will try to do our best and try and beat him.”
Philipsen won March’s Milan-Sanremo but has been regularly beaten in stage races throughout the season, although mostly against two riders not present at the Tour: Soudal-QuickStep’s Tim Merlier and Lidl-Trek’s Jonathan Milan.
Asked if he can pinpoint why he hasn’t been as consistently fast, Philipsen said: “Because the other guys are super and not slow. We also focused a lot on the Classics – we had success in Milan-Sanremo – and we weren’t focusing a lot on sprinting.
“I am expecting from myself that I’ll be sprinting faster during the Tour de France which should be the obvious goal. But of course other guys will also expect the same.”
The big weapon in Philipsen’s armoury is reigning world champion Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutchman has become a vital member of Philipsen’s leadout train in recent times, and with Van der Poel not expecting to be in contention for many stage victories himself, he will be dedicating his services to his teammate.
“Mathieu is someone that not many other teams have, or no other team in fact, so it’s something important for our team,” Philipsen said.
“It was a really good how we managed to do the sprints last year. But if there are circumstances and we have to innovate without Mathieu, we can do it. We can adapt to any situation to have maximal strength in a sprint stage.”
