photo credits ASO
Jasper Philipsen(Alpecin-Deceuninck) made it back-to-back wins today, after the Belgian sprinter won stage 4 of the Tour de France, beating Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) in a crash-marred sprint finale in Nogaro that amongst others ensnared Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep).
As a result of his second victory, Philipsen was moved into the lead of the green jersey standings, which he now leads over Victor Lafay (Cofidis) by 150 points to the French rider’s 80.
Meanwhile, Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) completed the top five, with the 182 kilometer stage from Dax having no impact on the general classification, as Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) retained his six-second lead over his Slovenian team-mate Tadej Pogacar going into two days in the Pyrenees.
Race Highlights
I wasn’t until the halfway point that a proper breakaway formed, Benoit Cosnefroy and Arkea-Samsic’s Anthony Delaplace taking advantage of a brief lull in the peloton.
From there, the French duo established a maximum lead of just over one minute over rolling roads, which saw the Soudal-QuickStep, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Jayco-AlUla teams of Jakobsen, Philipsen and Dylan Groenewegen come to the front to keep a lid on the threat.
No sooner had Delaplace led his compatriot over the summit of the only categorized climb, the Cat.4 Cote de Demu, the duo was swept up by the chase with 25 kilometers remaining.
Tensions gradually rose to breaking point ahead of the finishing circuit, with a narrow gated entry stringing out the peloton ahead of the decisive final 3 kilometers.
Jakobsen was one of the first riders to go down as a series of crashes that plagued the peloton, while Philipsen found himself separated from his team-mates until Mathieu Van der Poel emerged to support him.
“It was close in the end but I was happy they confirmed the result quickly,” Philipsen said, referring to the long time it took for the race jury to confirm his victory 24 hours earlier.
“It was a really easy stage – everybody wanted to save their legs for the Pyrenees tomorrow and the next day. There were lots of crashes on the finish circuit so I hope everyone is okay. It was a bit of a hectic final with the turns at the end.
“I lost my team but then I found Mathieu van der Poel on the finish straight and he did an amazing pull to get me to victory – but my legs were cramping and Caleb was coming close.”
In the meantime, Cavendish improved one place from his result in Bayonne, but the British rider will have to wait until Friday’s stage to Bordeaux for another chance at making history with that elusive 35th Tour stage win.
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