An impressive sprint launched by record hopeful Mark Cavendish in Bordeaux was not enough to deny green jersey Jasper Philipsen a third win in this year's Tour de France.
Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan), who is aiming for a record 35th Tour de France stage victory, leapt out of the charging bunch like a scalded cat in the final 150 metres, instantly gaining a small gap. It looked as though the record might well fall, but he faded visibly in the last 30 metres, with an onward charging Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sweeping past him in the final metres.
"If you told me this a week ago I would think you're crazy," said Philipsen afterwards. "But so far it's the dream for us, the dream Tour.
"Hopefully we can add another one, but from now on I'm looking to Paris also," he said, presumably in reference to his green points which he once again made a little more secure on his shoulders.
Of Cavendish, Philipsen said: "He was really strong. I would also love to see him win, I think everybody [would]. But he will keep on trying. He's up there, he's in good condition."
The 169.9km stage took riders north from Mont-de-Marsan to Bordeaux in the south-west of the country and a bunch sprint was widely predicted ahead of the stage.
Arkéa-Samsic rider Simon Gugliemi instigated an early break and while he was joined briefly for a handful of kilometres, his companions were ordered back to the bunch. Frenchman Gugliemi stuck it out though and built a gap up more than seven minutes at one stage, with the bunch behind happy to let him go.
Around midway, after the intermediate sprint where Biniam Girmay won the race for second out of the bunch, Gugliemi was joined by two compatriots, Nans Peters (AG2R-Citroën) and Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies).
After losing Gugliemi with around 35km to go, Peters and Latour stayed out ahead until finally being closed down in the final kilometres. With Bordeaux being a famous sprint finish, this was always going to end in a bunch gallop.
Despite the Manxman winning here last time the Tour visited in 2010, today was not to be his day.
