Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) finally achieved his main goal in the 2026 Tour de France, taking the victory in a chaotic stage 17 over Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) and Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) from a large breakaway.
The hard-fought win came after green jersey leader Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) blew the race apart with unbridled aggression, winning the intermediate sprint but fading in the mayhem of the bunch sprint to finish eighth.
Earlier in the stage, Pedersen bridged across to a 19-man breakaway after a frantic first half, successfully holding off his green jersey rival for the intermediate sprint with 28km to go. But the Belgian's chasing group far outnumbered the Dane's, and the two came together to battle for the stage win.