Heat sprint in Nîmes: Philipsen excels

Belgium’s sprint star Jasper Philipsen won the final flat stage of this year’s Tour de France on Tuesday.

July 16, 2024

From: apa

The 26-year-old from Team Alpecin won the mass sprint on the 16th stage from Gruissan to Nimes (188,6 km) in southern France with ease. Philipsen reduced his deficit in the battle for the top sprinter's green jersey to Biniam Girmay from Eritrea, who is also a three-time winner on the day and who fell around 1,5 kilometers from the finish.

Philipsen had already won the 10th and 13th stages of the 111th Tour last week. He now has a total of nine stage wins in the "Big Loop". The Belgian took home the green jersey last year. With the sprint in Nimes, which was perfectly prepared by his team, he gained 50 points on Girmay in the special classification and is now only 82 points behind the first African Tour stage winner.

Biniam Girmay was escorted to the finish line by his team. © APA/afp / MARCO BERTORELLO

Girmay fell in a roundabout, but apparently only sustained minor injuries and was escorted to the finish by his Intermarche teammates. "I hope he's OK. He didn't deserve to lose like that," said Philipsen, who triumphed ahead of German Phil Bauhaus and Norwegian Alexander Kristoff. "Every stage win is difficult to achieve, so we can be proud." Sprint veteran Mark Cavendish, who had already won in Nimes in 2008, was unable to influence the decision.

Temperatures of over 30 degrees and sometimes annoying headwinds prevented breakaway riders from trying their luck. A solo escape by Frenchman Thomas Gachignard 92 km from the finish was doomed to failure.

The rest of the tour belongs to the climbers

There will be no further chance for a mass sprint due to the Olympic Games. Instead of heading further north towards Paris, the peloton will travel through the Alps to Nice in the coming days. The most important race in the world will end there on Sunday with an individual time trial.

As expected, there were no changes in the overall ranking after leader Tadej Pogacar's 100th Tour stage. The Slovenian is still 3:09 ahead of defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, who will wear the yellow jersey for the 35th time on Wednesday. East Tyrolean Felix Gall is still in eleventh place. The demanding 17th stage runs over 177,8 km from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux into the Alps and ends after a four-kilometer climb in the winter sports resort of Superdevoluy.