Tour de France sprinter Jasper Philipsen endured a moment to forget as he celebrated crossing the finish line to win Stage Four of the iconic race on Tuesday - only to find out he had actually finished second.
The Tour returned to France after the first three days went through Denmark, with the French leg beginning with a hilly 172km route from Dunkirk to Calais along the north coast of the country. Yellow jersey-clad Wout van Aert made a solo surge up the final climb of the day and held on to win the stage with a dominant virtuoso display.
However, van Aert was so alone that even his rivals in Philipsen had no idea such a push was made. The Belgian star sprinted away from the riders around him and beat them to the line.
Philipsen passionately celebrated after crossing the line as he clearly thought he had secured the first Tour de France stage win of his career. In fact, Van Aert had extended his overall lead in the race after he left all his rivals trailing in his wake on the final hill - and Philipsen was left embarrassed.
“I thought I had won but then I saw Van Aert in front and I never knew he was in front, so yeah,” the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider said afterwards. “I felt good but at the moment I’m just a bit disappointed.
“On the climb I never saw him riding in front, it’s a disappointment for sure.”
However, Philipsen has since been able to see the funny side in his blunder. He added: “Yeah for four or five seconds I honestly thought I won, it will make funny images in the end.
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“I didn’t want this though so it’s a bit s*** also. I just didn’t know [Van Aert] was in front. I also never heard on the radio so yeah that’s a shame and why I sprinted for the win.”
Ultimately, van Aert powered clear from a tight pack with less than 12km left in the short ascent of the Cote du Cap Blanc Nez and went on to clinch his seventh individual stage win on the Tour. Philipsen took second place with France’s Christophe Laporte finishing third, eight seconds behind according to provisional timings.
It is not the first time a cyclist has mistakenly celebrated - and similar scenes were seen just a month ago. Alberto Bettiol of EF Education-EasyPost) celebrated after he thought he had secured a stage victory at the Tour de Suisse, only to not realise that Team DSM’s Andreas Leknessund has already crossed the line in first-place.
Bettiol later admitted that he hadn’t heard what was going on ahead of him on the radio but Matteo Trentin of UAE Team Emirates informed him afterwards that he had in fact lost.
