Tour de France: Triple for Philipsen - Cavendish must wait for record
DPA
· 07.07.2023
Phil Bauhaus lost his bearings in the heated finale, instead Jasper Philipsen has finally become the king of the sprinters at the 110th Tour de France with his triple. The 1500-watt man from Belgium celebrated his third victory of the year on the magnificent Quai Louis XVIII boulevard in Bordeaux.
Phil Bauhaus seventh on stage 7 of the Tour de France 2023
Philipsen triumphed after 169.9 kilometres ahead of the British veteran star Mark Cavendish, who will have to wait for his record stage win. Bauhaus, who had finished on the podium twice in Bayonne and Nogaro, had no chance this time and finished seventh.
Meanwhile, superstar Cavendish was very close to his 35th stage win, which would have seen him surpass legend Eddy Merckx once and for all. Cavendish had triumphed at the Tour's last guest appearance in Bordeaux in 2010.
Philipsen and van der Poel a congenial duo
"We can't be proud enough of how we've done as a team. We're trying everything we can. Three wins already. If anyone had told me that a week ago, I would have said they were crazy," said Philipsen.
Who is going to beat Philipsen, who pedals over 1500 watts in the finals, in the mass arrivals? Together with his world-class rider Mathieu van der Poel, who paves the way for him like a bulldozer in the sprints, the 25-year-old forms a congenial duo. If you add in Philipsen's victories in Carcassonne and Paris last year, he has won all of the last five bunch sprints. It's hard to believe that he still had the nickname "Jasper Disaster" until then.
"He follows me with his eyes closed," enthuses van der Poel about his team-mate. The classics specialist, who triumphed at Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix this year, is a potential winner himself.
No movement in the overall standings
After the spectacular Pyrenean stages, the favourites for overall victory around the Danish defending champion and yellow jersey holder Jonas Vingegaard were able to relax a little in the peloton, if this was possible at all in temperatures of 33 degrees. Vingegaard has a 25-second lead in the classification over his great rival Tadej Pogacar, whose victory in Cauterets-Cambasque, however, provided further suspense. Behind him, the Australian Jai Hindley from the German Bora-hansgrohe team remains third.
The best German remains Emanuel Buchmann, who slipped from fourth to 15th place on the second stage of the Pyrenees after toiling hard in Hindley's futile defence of the yellow jersey. However, this earned him extra praise from team boss Ralph Denk: "It was great of him to put himself at the service of the team. We are glad to have him in our ranks."
Breakaway five kilometres from the finish
This time it was the sprinters' teams that had the work this time, with the two French breakaway riders Nans Peters and Pierre Latour taking the lead five kilometres before the finish. In Bordeaux, which was hosting the Tour for the 81st time, it was almost traditionally a sprint royal.
The detour to Bordeaux was also accompanied by some security concerns in the Tour entourage, as it was the first guest appearance in a French metropolis this year. There had also been riots in Bordeaux in the past day following the death of a 17-year-old from a police bullet during a traffic stop in Nanterre.
Saturday's eighth stage over 200.7 kilometres from Libourne to Limoges could be the hour of the breakaway. Perhaps Georg Zimmermann from Augsburg will manage to catch a good group. Otherwise, another sprint finish is to be expected. Two fourth-category climbs and a gradient of up to five per cent in the last 700 metres will make the stage finale difficult.
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