At the end of a day where only three riders tried their luck at the front, the Belgian won the sprint on Friday. Not worried, the Danish yellow jersey keeps its tunic.
Published
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
:quality(50)/2023/07/07/64a82b7be4063_000-33n68hl.jpg)
The king of the sprint is indeed him. For the third time in three massive arrivals, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won in front of a pack of pursuers, during the seventh stage of the Tour de France between Mont-de-Marsan and Bordeaux, Friday July 7.
Once again dropped on a plateau by Mathieu van der Poel, the Belgian beat the competition, Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team) taking second place and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché – Circus – Wanty) third. In a stage where the general classification was not intended to be upset, the Jumbo-Visma got down to protecting its yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard, to the point that neither Wout van Aert nor Christophe Laporte participated in the sprint.
The logic of this start of the Tour was respected in Gironde. Perfectly organized at the head of the peloton during the last kilometers, so as to avoid all the pitfalls of a tortuous final, the Alpecin-Deceuninck formation recited their score without false note in the streets of Bordeaux. One by one, the stages of the Philipsen rocket separated, Mathieu van der Poel giving way to his leader 300 meters from the finish.
Neither the attempt, a little too premature, of Mark Cavendish, nor the notable presence of Biniam Girmay was enough to disturb him. Jasper Philipsen thus consolidates his green jersey in the points classification (215 points) and is still ahead of Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), second with 127 points.
The stages of plains deserted by breakaways
Perhaps this is due to the difficulty of the stages offered to the riders in the Basque Country and in the Pyrenees, and the need for the peloton to regain strength, but the observation is implacable: on the three stages intended for the sprinters, only six riders in total tried their luck on the breakaway.
Long alone in the lead on Friday, Simon Guglielmi (Nans Peters (