Jasper Philipsen has capped a fine team performance to win stage 17 of the Tour de France, with defending champion Tadej Pogačar protecting his overall lead.
Mathieu van der Poel led his Alpecin-Premier Tech teammate Philipsen to his first stage victory of this Tour overnight by controlling the pace and containing counterattacks through the last kilometres.
Philipsen finished just ahead of Mauro Schmid and Olav Kooij.
The Belgian rider described a “a roller-coaster of emotions” after what had been a disappointing Tour for him personally.
“I prepared very, very well. I was in the shape of my life, I think, and the first stages, the first 12 days, were just horrible. I couldn’t find myself, couldn’t find the feeling I was hoping for,” said Philipsen, who thanked his team colleagues.
“I was like an angry bird at the table. I was just disappointed in myself, angry that I couldn’t take [a] stage win, that I didn’t find my feeling. And the team, they had to deal with it, not only the riders, the staff. This one is for them to keep on believing.”
Pogačar, who is chasing a third straight Tour title and fifth overall, maintained his lead of just over four and a half minutes over Remco Evenepoel, the winner of the previous two stages.
But it was a bad day for Pogačar’s UAE Emirates XRG teammate Adam Yates, who struggled and only made it back within the time limit. The British rider slumped over his handlebars, clearly exhausted.
The race ends on Sunday in Paris.
The relatively flat 174.7km route from Chambery to Voiron was the last favourable stage for sprinters before the Tour takes to the Alps, and it led to a day of attempted breakaways, with many riders vying to put themselves in contention.
Van der Poel was among the leaders after Côte de Saint-Jean d’Arvey, the last significant climb, and they were joined by others before Yates’s problems began in the peloton.
Mads Pedersen was the next to attack the leaders with 65km remaining, and the green jersey-holder invigorated the group when he joined them.
More sprinters broke away, swelling the group to 30 riders, before Pedersen, Ben Healy, Michal Kwiatkowski, Felix Engelhardt, Ed Planckaert and Jasper Stuyven struck out 57km from the finish.
Stuyven attacked on his own 26km from the line, leaving his five former co-leaders to chase or wait for the main bunch. They were caught. The only question was whether the 34-year-old Stuyven had the stamina to claim his first Tour stage win.
The Belgian rider was caught with less than 4km remaining, and Van der Poel did the rest for Philipsen.
Philipsen’s stage win moved him just behind Pedersen in the contest for the green jersey awarded to the rider with the most points.
With four stages remaining, Pedersen of Lidl-Trek had 452 points, followed by Philipsen on 445. Biniam Girmay of Eritrea was next with 361 points.
Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, responded to criticism of unannounced anti-doping controls after Pogačar and his main rival Jonas Vingegaard were woken in the early hours of Sunday for tests by the Swiss-based International Testing Agency.
Vingegaard subsequently crashed during Sunday’s stage and had to abandon the race.
The UCI said it acknowledged the night-time testing “can disrupt riders’ rest and recovery” and said it remained an exceptional measure.
“While fully aware of how onerous such a measure is for riders, the UCI nevertheless underscores that these controls serve an overriding interest: the fight against doping,” the body said in a statement.
AP
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