Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) finally got the sprint victory he’d been after on stage 10, beating Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) with a perfect lead-out from teammate Mathieu van der Poel.
Philipsen was both happy and relieved. “Last week was not a good week for our team, although we had some bad luck of course. I am happy and relieved that we could now show our strength with the lead out train. We put down the perfect sprint preparation, we were finally able to do what we came for. Although it was tricky with that corner at the end.”
Now that he has his first stage win of the Tour under his belt, Philipsen is hoping for more. “There are still some great stages to come, where I want to play my strengths. The green? Biniam Girmay is doing a strong Tour so far. He is ahead by a lot of points, and I focused primarily on stage wins. Now I am looking forward to the next one, we want as many as possible. And then we will see where we end up.”
Philipsen’s teammate and lead-out man, Mathieu van der Poel, was equally pleased. “We did a great job with the team by always being very well up front in the corners. It was tricky and we knew we had to be up front there, which worked out well. That Jasper finally finishes it off is perfect.”
Arnaud De Lie lost his position and didn’t bother sprinting. “I was around twentieth place and couldn’t position myself at the front anymore. I saw that it was no longer useful and I actually didn’t sprint. I was too far in those last 500 meters. I should have been able to position myself better there, but oh well, so be it.”
Dylan Groenewegen also lost his position. “We almost fell at 2.5 kilometres. We stayed together well and came back to the front on the right. That cost some energy, but I still got into a good position. In the last corner I had to brake again and then I didn’t get into position anymore. Then it’s over, especially when there is a team that does a good lead-out like Alpecin-Deceuninck. Then the pace stays up and you don’t come back from behind.”
RESULTS
Stage 10: Orléans > Saint-Amand-Montrond (187.3km)
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
