Jasper Philipsen cemented his standing as this 12 months’s sprinting star when he claimed his fourth stage win in the Tour de France on Wednesday.
The Belgian was a reduce above the relaxation in the eleventh stage, a 180km trip from Clermont Ferrand, beating Dylan Groenewegen and Phil Bauhaus to take his profession tally of wins in the world’s biggest race to 6.
Although he didn’t profit this time from the work of his prime lead-out man Mathieu van der Poel, who struggled in the finale, Philipsen timed his effort to perfection to prevail by a motorcycle size.
He has now received six of the final seven bunch sprints on the Tour, having solely been denied this 12 months by Mads Pedersen in Limoges final Saturday. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider turned the first man to win 4 levels in the similar Tour since Mark Cavendish in 2021.
Philipsen can now bid to develop into the first rider to win 5 levels in a single version of the Tour since Marcel Kittel in 2017.
He strengthened his grip on the inexperienced jersey for the factors classification, taking his tally to 323 and widen the hole with second-placed Bryan Coquard to an enormous 145 factors.
(*11*) Philipsen mentioned.
“Four is amazing, now we can go for five, it’s totally possible,” Alpecin Deceuninck sports activities director Christoph Roodhooft mentioned.
Thursday’s 12th stage is a 169km roller-coaster between Roanne and Belleville en Beaujolais, the place the breakaway specialists are anticipated to get their alternative to shine.
⏪ Nearly a fairytale for @GroenewegenD, however it merely wasn’t meant to be, as @JasperPhilipsen claims his 4th🏅.The final KM ⤵️
⏪ Journée presque parfaite pour @GroenewegenD, mais il n’y avait rien à faire contre un @JasperPhilipsen qui remporte sa 4ème étape🏅#TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/X670iYBJmx
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 12, 2023
