After all the controversy and disappointment of the first week, Jasper Philipsen got back in the wins at the Tour de France on stage 10 following a textbook lead-out from World Champion Mathieu van der Poel and Alpecin-Deceuninck.
Finally the win came for the best sprinter from last year’s Tour, with him hitting the wind in the final few hundred metres and the difference in power was so obvious, with a clear gap to second-placed Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) at the line, who continued a great run of form ahead of Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) in third.
Alpecin led through the final few important corners, albeit with some infiltration from Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) who was guiding Wout van Aert, but after not getting it quite right on the four sprint opportunities last week, they guided Philipsen perfectly to his seventh Tour de France stage victory.
“Last week was not a great week. It was an endless week for us, with some bad luck, of course, but I'm really happy and big relief. We can finally show our strength together with the lead-out train. I think, yeah, we did finally what we came for, and yeah, we could line it up. It was a perfect job from the team,” said a relieved Philipsen post-race, with big praise for his teammates.
“We know with the corner was quite tricky, but we had everything. Everybody was growing during this Tour. Maybe we didn't start in our very best shape, but we all feel healthy, we feel good. I'm really happy we can start the second week with a win and still some nice stages to come.”
With Girmay managing second, it is making a repeat green jersey win for the Belgian look less likely with every flat finish, but he’ll only be focused on getting more wins and adding to the seven he already has.
“[Girmay] is doing a really strong Tour so far. He's a lot of points ahead, so I think we just try to focus on a stage win, which we just succeeded,” said Philipsen. “Now we’re just looking forward for the next stages, and we’ll try as much as possible. Then we see where we can get.”
Behind Philipsen and the sprinters was a bunch that almost enjoyed a second rest day for 95% of the 187.3km on stage 10. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) arrived safely to hold onto the yellow jersey alongside second-placed Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and the rest of the GC favourites.
Their time will come on tomorrow’s stage 11 as the race heads into the Massif Central for a brutally tough mountain day and the first of the second week, with 211km concluding with a backloaded climbing finish to Le Lioran after taking on over 4,000 metres of elevation gain.
How it unfolded
As racing resumed for the second week at the Tour de France, the effects from an exhilarating but grueling first nine stages were perhaps taking their toll, with no takers for the early breakaway upon race director Christian Prudhomme waving the flag at kilometre zero.
It was all smiles and chatting in the peloton for much of the opening phase heading south from Orléans, with the host broadcaster even tagging swans swimming away from the roads as Pogačar and Vingegaard while they waited for action.
The intermediate sprint in Romorantin-Lanthenay offered up a chance to accelerate with Kobe Goossens (Intermarché-Wanty) getting up the road with Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto Dstny). The pair were chased momentarily by another trio of Kevin Geniets, Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Brent Van Moer (Lotto Dstny) but the Alpecin-Deceuninck-led peloton reeled them in before the sprint at 130km to go.
Goossens and Vanhoucke mopped up the maximum points as the former’s teammate Girmay looked to defend his lead of the green jersey in the sprint. The double stage winner tried to kick out of Philipsen’s wheel and up his inside but was squeezed and forced to brake due to the barriers narrowing.
With the Belgian looking ominously quick and that stress point over, calmness returned to the 172 riders still at the Tour, where they rode at a pace much slower than the projected fastest for almost the next 70 kilometres.
Crosswind action was possible on exposed roads throughout the Centre-Val de Loire region but didn’t come into the minds of the teams until the 59km to go mark, where a key left-hand turn through Issoudun got everyone nervous.
GC teams and those with sprinters got towards the front in anticipation of the change of direction, with UAE, Visma and Astana all among the most active teams on the front.
The pace was upped near to 70 kph and the bunch was strung out, but flags on the roadside showed the wind wasn’t nearly strong enough for echelons. When the turn was made and everyone realised it wasn’t possible, speeds dropped by 20 kph.
Again calmness was restored with all eyes on the final run towards Saint-Amand-Montrond and the final few kilometres of stage 10, where key corners would decide the winner of the day’s action.
Six kilometres from the line brought a small uncategorised climb into play where no one was dropped, but such was the speed off the descent that the peloton was lining out and riders started to struggle. Philipsen lost position momentarily but found his way back onto the part of Alpecin’s train where Van der Poel was.
With the final approach no unfolding, the washing machine effect was well in play at the front of the peloton, with the likes of EF Education-EasyPost and Israel-Premier Tech occupying the top spots as the race reached Saint-Amand-Montrond.
But as the crucial trio of corners arrived in the final 2km, the grey double-denim and rainbow bands of Alpecin-Deceuninck’s lead-out train appeared, doing what they did so well in 2023 and moving up to pole position ahead of the final sprint.
Philipsen in prime position proved that the speed was definitely not lost as when he launched his final kick, he moved away from those in his slipstream and powered to the line to open the second week at the 2024 Tour de France with a bang.
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