Jasper Philipsen of Belgium sealed back-to-back victories in the Tour de France, winning stage four from Dax to Nogaro. A soporific afternoon’s racing exploded into chaotic life in the closing kilometres. In a finish described by Mark Cavendish as “carnage”, a spate of crashes on the Paul Armagnac motor racing circuit involved riders hitting the road, including the sprinter Fabio Jakobsen of the Soudal Quickstep team.
Cavendish, buoyed by finishing sixth on Monday in the stage to Bayonne, was again in the thick of the sprint, finishing fifth. For now, however, with the Pyrenees on the horizon, he will have to park his hopes for that record-breaking 35th stage win. “It was a real mixing point of riders,” he said of the final kilometres. “I was constantly analysing who was there and who had other teammates, jumping from train to train.”
