Belgium’s sprint star Jasper Philipsen has completed the last flat stage of this year’s Tour de France The 26-year-old from Team Alpecin won the 16th stage from Gruissan to Nimes (188.6 km) in southern France in the Massensprint confidently through.
Philipsen reduced his deficit in the battle for the Green jersey of the top sprinter on the also three-time daily winner Biniam Girmay from Eritrea, who fell about 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.
Girmay crashed in a roundabout, but apparently only sustained minor injuries and was escorted to the finish by Intermarche teammates. “I hope he’s OK. He didn’t deserve to lose like that,” said Philipsen, who finished ahead of the German Phil Bauhaus and the Norwegian Alexander Kristoff triumphed. “Every stage win is difficult to achieve, so we can be proud.” Sprint veteran Mark Cavendishwho had already won in Nimes in 2008, could not intervene in the decision.
With Chris Harper (Jayco) and Maxim van Gils (Lotto) there were two tasks before the start due to corona infections. Temperatures of over 30 degrees and sometimes annoying headwinds prevented breakaway riders from trying their luck. A solo escape by the Frenchman Thomas Gachignard 92 km from the finish was doomed to failure. 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.
Pogacar continues to lead the overall standings
In the overall standings, after the 100th Tour stage, leader Tadej Pogacar As expected, no changes. The Slovenian continues to lead 3:09 ahead of defending champion Jonas Vingegaardhe will wear the yellow jersey for the 35th time on Wednesday.
The East Tyrolean Felix Gall is still eleventh. 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.