Very frustrated until then, Jasper Philipsen signed his first victory on the Tour de France this year on Tuesday in Saint-Amand-Montrond at the end of a stunning tenth stage.
So strong last year when he crushed the sprinters’ field with four victories, the Belgian had not yet managed to find the opening since the start in Florence, eclipsed in particular by an Eritrean, Biniam Girmay, who was sparkling.
On Tuesday, launched by a perfect Alpecin train, Philipsen ended the ordeal after days of returning, evening after evening, to his bus cursing the whole earth.
“We had a shitty week. We had to keep believing,” admitted the Alpecin rider who, for the occasion, dominated the proceedings to win with a two-bike lead over Girmay, Pascal Ackermann and the rest of the peloton.
“It’s a relief, last week wasn’t a good week, it was endless. We can finally show our strength,” he insisted.
With this victory, the Flemish player is back in the fight for the green jersey that he brought back to Paris last year, but is still 74 points behind Biniam Girmay.
Girmay “is still well ahead. We’re going to try to get as many wins as possible and see where we can end up,” he said.
There are still three opportunities, Thursday in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Friday in Pau and next Tuesday in Nîmes. And there is hope, especially if Alpecin can reproduce the same collective demonstration as in the hometown of Julian Alaphilippe.
“A flawless performance”
“It was like a textbook, flawless,” commented Robbe Ghys, one of the members of the grey train, relayed by a Mathieu van der Poel in dragster mode after a first week that was rather anonymous by his standards.
“A world champion who launches you on a stage of the Tour de France is still magnificent. Mathieu is so strong,” applauded Philipsen, giving a “10 out of 10” to his team.
“Mathieu was in great shape,” also noted team manager Christophe Roodhooft. “In the end,” he added, “it was the easiest sprint of the week for Jasper, a sprint as we like them, very fast, with the wind at his back.”
This victory allows the tension to be lowered a notch at Alpecin where the nervousness was palpable in recent days. “Talking about something other than cycling yesterday during the rest day did us good,” said Christophe Roodhooft.
“We were very determined this morning,” explained Van der Poel. “We knew there weren’t that many chances left. In the first week, we had trouble getting our train in place but Jasper had to keep the confidence. The peloton is also more tired now and we can make the difference more easily.”
Is it because he is tired? The peloton slept a lot on Tuesday, extending the rest day with a long procession on desperately flat roads.
Ode to the long time
The wind was expected to liven up the race by creating echelons like those that had dashed Alejandro Valvedere’s hopes on these same roads in 2013.
But he didn’t blow hard enough.
Plunged into a gentle torpor, sometimes disturbed by a brief downpour, the Tour de France therefore lingered until Saint-Amand, without the slightest breakaway to brighten up the ordinary.
So the runners kept busy as best they could.
Pavel Sivakov, the French teammate of the yellow jersey Pogacar, had fun throwing his bottle, successfully, through the door of a camper van.
The Spanish and French have started to bicker over the Euro football semi-final.
And even the director tried to ward off boredom by zooming in at length on two swans sailing in the greenish waters of a pond.
This ode to long time and naps only ended at the very end of the stage when Philipsen became a racing car again.
This should change completely on Wednesday during a formidable stage in the Cantal mountains where the favourites should emerge from their slumber.