Jasper Philipsen took his second stage win in the 2024 Tour de France, but the Belgian sprinter was again subject to criticism from rivals over his sprinting style.
After a spate of failed attacks in the final kilometres paved the way for yet another dash to the line, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider avoided a nasty crash in the final kilometre to hold off Wout Van Aert and Pascal Ackermann in Pau’s Place de Verdun.
But after the finish, Israel-Premier Tech’s Ackermann refused to shake Philipsen’s hand and then angrily suggested that his rival should be relegated by the race commissaires.
“Philipsen took my front wheel when he was passing me, turned right and I nearly crashed.” Ackermann said. “He has so many times now [done] the same, and he’s still doing it. I hope they take him back [relegate him] today, because it’s too much.”
Asked for his response to suggestions that he should be relegated, Philipsen said: “I don’t like this kind of question, no comment.”
In the final stage before the Tour enters the Pyrénées for back-to-back summit finishes, at Pla d’Adet and Plateau de Beille, the sprinters and their teams had been expected to dominate the race.
But in what was the eighth fastest stage in the history of the Tour, average speeds close to 50km/h throughout the stage combined with volatile wind conditions to fracture the peloton on several occasions.
There were only two fourth-category climbs on the route, but the gusting crosswinds played havoc almost from the off. Attack after attack led to a series of splits and frantic chases, with the top three on general classification – Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard – active on every occasion.
But some of the lowlier members of the early breakaways were less than happy to have Pogacar’s UAE Emirates squad actively trying to force the pace in every attacking move.
“I said 15 times to Adam Yates [Pogacar’s teammate] to back off, but he said his team wanted him to ride,” the Frenchman Julien Bernard, of Lidl-Trek, one of the breakaway riders, said.
“I understand that UAE want to tire Visma [Vingegaard’s team] because of the coming days, but I don’t understand why Visma want to kill their team when there’s a mountain stage on Saturday,” he said.
High speeds, incessant attacks and an undulating run-in to Pau put paid to the hopes of several of the leading sprinters, including Mark Cavendish, who was cut adrift in a small group.
It was another ill-fated day for the record-breaking stage winner, who was in one of the groups distanced by attacks in the crosswinds just under 60 kilometres from Pau.
But as Cavendish had suggested on Thursday morning, Covid is once more stalking the peloton. On the eve of the Pyrénées, Pogacar’s team was weakened after one of his key climbing lieutenants, Juan Ayuso, quit the race due to the virus.
The defending champion, Vingegaard, was wearing a face mask at the start of the stage, but said that it was merely “a precaution”.
After crashes on consecutive stages, Primoz Roglic, second overall in the 2020 Tour, did not start the Tour’s 13th stage. The Slovenian had slipped to sixth overall after crashing on Thursday.
“Primoz underwent careful examination by our medical team after yesterday’s stage and again this morning,” the Bora-Hansgrohe team said, before the stage start in Agen. “The decision has been taken that he will not start.”
Philipsen believes there is one more sprint stage – stage 16 from Gruissan to Nîmes – before the peloton tackles a final week brimming with long, steep climbs before the closing time trial in Nice on 21 July.
With the traditional finale in Paris not taking place due to preparations for the Paris Olympics, the sprinters are resigned to suffering through the climactic mountain stages.
“It will be tough after stage 16,” he said. “You have to suffer through the next four stages to arrive in Nice. We will have to stay mentally strong.”
