This time, the allegation seemed less fair and a tad more desperate, but it continued the trend of accusations being levelled at Jasper Philipsen that he’s a dangerous sprinter.
In winning stage 13 of the Tour de France in Pau, the Alpecin-Deceuninck man took his second triumph in this year’s race, and an eighth career victory here. But not everyone was happy. They never are with Philipsen.
Pascal Ackermann, Israel-Premier Tech’s fast-man who finished third on the day, refused to shake Philipsen’s hand after the stage, and bemoaned that “I hope they [the race commissaires] take him back [relegate him] today because it’s too much.”
The disapproval related to how Philipsen swung out of Ackermann’s rear wheel in the final few hundred metres, darted to the left of the German and then swung back in front of him before powering to the win. “Philipsen took my front wheel when he was passing me, and when he turned right I nearly crashed,” Ackermann said. “He’s done it the same so many times now and he’s still doing it.”
The charge, that has been overshadowing Philipsen’s many wins for the past two years, goes that he fails to hold the same racing line, and as he manoeuvres across the road, he impedes his fellow competitors. But the 26-year-old is too vexed and tired to even engage in the topic. “No comment,” he snarled after his latest win. “I don’t like these questions.”
Jayco-AlUla’s sprinter Dylan Groenewegen didn’t contest the finale of stage 13, but the Australian team’s DS, Matt White, understood the criticism aimed at Philipsen. “There’s so much scrutiny on him because of his previous history,” he said. “If you look at his sprints in the past, he’s a sprinter who does what he needs to do to win. But what we’ve learned in this Tour de France is that the UCI is certainly serious about implementing certain rules.”
Of the seven stages that have ended in a bunch sprint in this year’s Tour, only two have resulted in sprinters being relegated for irregular sprinting: Philipsen, to his fury, on stage six, and Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Arnaud Démare (Arkéa B&B Hotels) on stage 12. But there have been calls for more demotions: Visma-Lease a Bike's Wout van Aert has been boxed in on the right hand side of the barriers on several occasions, and, dare we say it, Cavendish’s historic win on stage five was a result of a rapid move across the width of the road.
Teams are flummoxed as to what is and isn’t allowed, and how far a rider can deviate from their set sprinting line. “There is no definition,” White said, adding that UCI commissaires rarely communicate their decisions with teams. “Look at the day Cav won: he went from one side of the road to another, a huge deviation, Philipsen followed him and almost took out [Fernando] Gaviria in the process, and because of the movement there was a squeeze on the left which caused [Mads] Pedersen to crash.
“Then the day after there was a bit of movement and nothing happened; then Wout got squeezed and nothing happened; and then the next time it was scrubbing time with Cav and Démare, but was that justified based on the other sprints? It’s very inconsistent.”
All Philipsen wanted to discuss was how he has belatedly started winning at the Tour. “I was just really happy with my feelings being really good,” he said. “I feel I am growing in confidence in the sprints and I’m happy I could do a really good sprint to take my second stage win.”
Yet beating Biniam Girmay for the points classification come the finale in Nice might be a tall order. The Intermarché-Wanty rider has a lead of 75 points over Philipsen, and with so few sprinting opportunities remaining, the Eritrean, a winner of three stages so far, will be confident of retaining the green jersey.
“It’s going to be really difficult, almost impossible,” Philipsen said, “because there’s only one sprint stage left. We try to focus on this stage 16 and we’ll see. It [the green jersey] was a goal at the start of the Tour, but I can be happy with a win today.” One more, and he can go home satisfied – even if his rivals will continue to snark about his sprinting style. “Three stage wins would be good,” he concluded.
