Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) outpaced his rivals to the finish in Nimes with a powerful acceleration that had been expertly led by his World Champion teammate Mathieu van der Poel.
Green Jersey’s Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) crashed with 1.5km to go and he was unable to contest the final sprint. An exciting bunch sprint resulted in Philipsen crossing the line ahead of Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X) for his third win of this year’s Tour.
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) celebrated his 100th day of Tour de France racing by securing the Yellow Jersey for the 35th time in his career, with no changes at the top of the GC on the first day back on the road after Monday’s rest day.
Behind Pogacar in the overall standings, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) remain respectively 3’09” and 5’19” adrift of the Slovenian star.
Said Philipsen after the stage, “Every stage win is really hard to get at this level. Taking three is a very good job. We can be proud. Green jersey? Everything is possible, but it’s really hard as Bini is climbing really well. We will go day by day, while also enjoying every victory.”
“I hope he [Bini] is fine after the crash, because he doesn’t deserve to lose the Points classification like this, because of a crash.”
At the Start
Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) then Sandy Dujardin (TotalEnergies) went ahead of the peloton in the first kilometer but sat up when they realized that there were no further volunteers to accompany them in the breakaway. The race continued to move at a moderate pace during the first hour with 37.9 kilometers covered, before the average speed significantly increased in the second hour of racing (with 44.8 km covered).
At the Matelettes intermediate sprint (km 96.1) Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) got to the line first, while Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was second, with Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) fourth.
Frenchman Gachignard goes solo
After the intermediate sprint Thomas Gachignard (TotalEnergies) went solo, attacking the peloton and building a 2’20” advantage by the time he reached the top of the only categorized climb of the stage at Côte de Fambetou (Cat 4, km 112.6).
The peloton did not react with Jayco-AlUla collaborating with Alpecin-
Deceuninck at the front of the bunch to offset any potential threat from the relatively light crosswinds. 25 kilometers from the finish line a peloton led by Groupama-FDJ caught the solo attacker, who was named as the most combative rider of the stage for his efforts.
“It’s nice to be a bit of a protagonist up front,” recounted Gachignard after the stage.”I was sick at the start of the Tour, and I had difficulty recovering. The objective today was to protect Anthony for a sprint, and also to be present after the intermediate sprint. I attacked and created a gap in front of the peloton. No one followed me and I quickly dug in.”
“I didn’t believe in victory–we already knew before the start that it was 95% likely for a sprint. Still, I had to try and show the jersey and to gain a little confidence in myself.”
Another bunch sprint in Nimes
Nimes has hosted several bunch sprint finishes in the past and that was the case again as the peloton flew through the city streets towards the final straight.
An unfortunate crash for green jersey Girmay at a roundabout inside the final 2km sadly denied him of the chance to participate in the final sprint which was ultimately won by Philipsen ahead of Bauhaus and Kristoff.
