Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) reasserted his dominance over the Tour de France sprint field with his fourth victory at the 2023 race on stage 11 into Moulins.
Following a wet, technical run into the final kilometre which was littered with roundabouts, Philipsen overpowered Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla) and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X) after losing the wheel of Jonas Rickaert and the rest of the Alpecin-Deceuninck train prior to the final corner.
Philipsen was momentarily boxed in but moved up on his own onto Groenewegen’s wheel before kicking easily away from him in the final 150 metres for a fourth flat sprint win.
Groenewegen was second across the line, with Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) close behind for his third top-three finish in a bunch sprint on Tour debut.
The green jersey wearer has aptly been nicknamed ‘Jasper the master’ after his great success in 2023, in response to being called ‘Jasper the disaster’ by his own team in Netflix’s 'Tour de France: Unchained'.
However, he was quick to focus instead on his and Alpecin-Deceuninck’s consistent success in sprint stages, rather than a nickname after a fourth emphatic win.
“I said this morning, maybe if I win again today, yes,” joked Philipsen. “It’s been an incredible Tour so far. I can’t realise how good it is all going, so, I’m super proud and really happy with my shape, and also to get through the final without problems is also a big challenge, and we managed to do it four times, so I’m super happy.”
Philipsen had to navigate a sprint finish for the first time in the 2023 Tour without lead-out extraordinaire, Mathieu van der Poel, but showed he’s more than capable of surfing wheels and that his pure speed is equally as important.
“I can also win without him, but of course, he makes it more easy,” Philipsen said. “I had to find my wheel a little bit, and it’s also finding the space, and it’s hectic and dangerous for crashing, but I’m happy I could find a good wheel - [Dylan] Groenewegen - in the end, he opened up early, and I could go over.”
The Belgian fast man also wasn’t greedy after such a successful opening 11 stages, but was of course, delighted with his form and firm hold on the green jersey which he now leads on 323 points compared to Bryan Coquard’s (Cofidis) 178 in second.
“Maybe I see three more sprint opportunities, but there will be guys going for a break, but I’m already so happy so far, to take four, and hopefully, looking toward Paris, also, in this [green] jersey,” said Philipsen. “I think I’ve made a good gap now [in the points classification] and that gives me a bit of comfort going into the Alps.”
How it unfolded
After the brutal non-stop racing of stage 10 in the sweltering heat, the riders were pleased to see no real fight to get away from the peloton and a group of three forming as the breakaway at the front.
Andrey Amador (EF Education-EasyPost) was the first to slip off the front in anticipation of a larger break challenging for the stage, but only Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies) and Matis Louvel (Arkéa-Samsic) joined him.
As their gap grew, Alpecin-Deceuninck came to the front to ensure no big advantage was built and that a bunch sprint would be more likely for their sprinter and the most successful fast man at the race, Philipsen.
The three in front would get no more than 3:30 of a lead before the Belgian side began to reel them back in, aided in the chase by Soudal-QuickStep and Jayco AlUla for Fabio Jakobsen and Groenewegen, respectively.
All the KOM points along the route were mopped up by the break, alongside the top three places over the intermediate sprint into Lapeyrouse. Behind, Philipsen would extend his lead in the green jersey competition ahead of Coquard and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
With 80km remaining in the day and the peloton hitting wet roads through Montluçon, the break’s advantage had been reduced to only 40 seconds with Tim Declercq (Soudal-QuickStep) setting the pace, before they would turn right towards the finish in Moulins with a possible crosswind section approaching.
Flags on the route revealed how the wind was blowing across the road, forcing the GC teams to move towards the front and avoid any danger and with 55km to go the speed increased significantly for a few kilometres before the risk of splits dissipated.
Louvel and Amador knocked off their effort leaving Oss as the last man out in front on the road. The Italian rebuilt his advantage in pursuit of the combativity award and gold race number before being reabsorbed 13.5km from the line.
The heavens opened with rain in the final run into Moulins and would create more risk in the already technical final few corners and roundabouts for the sprint trains and GC teams to navigate.
All of the sprint teams came to the fore, but as has been commonplace in the 2023 Tour, the era of long lead-out trains has truly ended and it was Jumbo-Visma who actually dominated the front to keep Vingegaard safe before the 3km mark.
Philipsen kept disconnecting from his train in the final few corners and with Van der Poel not involved in the lead out, he had to navigate the final kilometre solo.
Groenewegen was brought to the fore perfectly by Luka Mezgec and as Kristoff hit the front too early he started his sprint, but behind him was Philipsen who had both hit the wind earlier than he would’ve wanted and battled shoulder-to-shoulder to find a sprinting lane.
Once the Belgian opened the afterburners, however, no one came close and by the line he was clear and again highlighting that he is the best sprinter in the world at the moment.
Philipsen’s fourth victory and 13 points from the intermediate sprint meant he further solidified his lead over the green jersey competition with a lead of 145 in front of Coquard.
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