Tour de France sprinter Jasper Philipsen celebrated crossing the finish line to win stage four of the race on Tuesday, only to discover he had finished second.
The Tour returned to France after an opening three days in Denmark for a hilly 172km route from Dunkirk to Calais on the north coast of the country.
Unbeknownst to Philipsen, the man in the yellow jersey Wout van Aert decided to make a solo surge up the final climb of the day and on to the finish, staying out in front to win in impressive style.
As Philipsen approached the finish he sprinted away from those around him and beat them to the line, perhaps a little easier than he might have imagined. None the wiser, the Belgian punched the air and roared thinking he had clinched the first Tour de France stage win of his career.
In fact, Van Aert had extended his overall lead in the Tour de France after he left all his rivals gasping for air on the final hill. The Belgian jumped away from a skimmed pack with less than 12km left in the short ascent of the Cote du Cap Blanc Nez and never looked back to clinch his seventh individual stage win on the Tour.
Philipsen took second place with France’s Christophe Laporte finishing third, eight seconds behind according to provisional timings.
It is not the first time a cyclist has mistakenly celebrated. Annemiek van Vleuten sprinted across the finish line at the Fuji International Speedway circuit and threw her arms aloft in celebration of her first Olympic road race title in Tokyo last year – oblivious to the fact she had actually won silver.
