A nap, then the explosion: Jasper Philipsen won his second victory in two days on Tuesday in the Tour de France after a particularly lazy stage before a final enamelled with falls on the Nogaro racing circuit.
In a tribute perhaps to the solo riders of Max Verstappen in Formula 1, the peloton purred for five hours on the roads of Gers, giving themselves a moderately exciting break on the eve of the first mountain stage in the Pyrenees.
“Probably the most boring Tour de France stage for a long time,” agreed Philipsen, winning again after his success the day before in Bayonne.
It’s simple: during the first 181 kilometers of a stage which had 181.8, absolutely nothing happened, apart from a hopeless breakaway by two Norman riders, Benoît Cosnefroy and Anthony Delaplace.
Themselves did not believe for a second in their chances of going to the end, on a course as flat as a dab. 60 km from the goal, Cosnefroy approached the motorcycle camera to offer to “do the post-race interview now, it will save me the press area at the end. »
“Why did we do this? I don’t know”, he added, hilarious, before being taken back 35 terminals further.
Jakobsen on the mat
A few minutes earlier, another runner, Adrien Petit, had already opened the valve box, suggesting on television to just put “a helicopter bottom” and like that “people are cushy for a nap”.
The awakening, however, was brutal.
Because as soon as the peloton ventured onto the Nogaro circuit, the cars of the peloton engaged the fifth, perhaps stung by the memory of the legendary André Darrigade who had come, at the age of 94, to visit them on the line of departure to Dax.
And the falls multiplied, sending several sprint cadors to the mat, starting with Fabio Jakobsen, miraculous after a nightmarish fall on the Tour of Poland in 2020. Already unhappy the day before, to the point of qualifying as “stupid” and “dangerous Philipsen’s behavior in Bayonne, the Dutchman suffered burns to his shoulder and back, according to the boss of his Soudal-Quick Step team Patrick Lefevere.
Deprived of landmarks in this unusual final, made of long fast curves leading to an interminable final straight of 800 meters, several riders also got caught in the barriers.
“I don’t remember a finish like that,” said Philipsen. It was very fast, we felt like racing cars. I’m very happy not to have fallen, I saw that there were a lot of falls, I hope my friends are well. »
Green shirt
Others like its leader at Alpecin, Mathieu van der Poel, strongly criticized the dangerousness of the circuit.
Philipsen, who beat Australian Caleb Ewan, German Phil Bauhaus and Frenchman Bryan Coquard, confirmed he was arguably the best sprinter around.
He remains on four successes in the last four massive sprints in the Tour de France, counting those last year in Carcassonne and on the Champs-Élysées.
The Belgian also wears the green jersey which, he said, “is becoming a goal on this Tour”. Especially since Jakobsen, his main rival, is still empty-handed and Wout Van Aert, crushing winner of the points classification in 2022, assured that he would not get involved in the fight this year, preferring to aim for stages that escape him. for the moment.
The Belgian star even indicated before the Tour that he might not go to Paris if his wife, who is expecting their second child, gives birth before the end.
“I’m very proud to win twice in a row,” said Philipsen. He is one of the best mountain sprinters. But he knows that he will suffer during the next two days in the Pyrenees which we hope will be less soporific.