Tour de France: Jasper Philipsen denies Mark Cavendish to pick up third stage win

SPRINT FINISH: Belgium's Jasper Philipsen, center, celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the seventh stage of the Tour de France. Pic: AP Photo/Thibault Camus

Mark Cavendish came agonisingly close to a record-breaking 35th stage win in the Tour de France, only to have it snatched away from him at the last by Jasper Philipsen, who completed a hat-trick of stage wins on the banks of the River Garonne in Bordeaux.

Two kilometres from the finish, Philipsen and his Alpecin Deceuninck team moved up to the front and took control, but Cavendish, again using his guile and experience, was waiting for a gap to open. As the peloton entered the final 100m, he looked to have judged it perfectly and eased ahead, only to glance across and see Philipsen pass him on his left.

As the peloton left the Pyrenees behind and raced through the flatlands of the Landes and Gironde and on towards the banks of the Garonne, most of the sprinters breathed a sigh of relief after surviving two torrid days of attacking racing in the high mountains.

The early move came from Simon Guglielmi of the Arkea Samsic team, who spent much of the stage riding solo, before being joined, with just over 70km to go, by compatriots Pierre Latour of TotalEnergies and Nans Peters of AG2R Citroen.

They repaid Guglielmi’s efforts by dropping him with 40km remaining, as the peloton finally picked up speed in pursuit. But the duo’s attack was inevitably snuffed out by the speeding peloton at the entrance to Bordeaux.

Earlier, with 50km left to race, Cavendish had been forced to chase back to the peloton after a bike change, with Philipsen’s key teammate, Matthieu van der Poel alongside him, but both riders managed to rejoin the peloton.

A winner in Bordeaux in 2010, Cavendish is one of only five riders who competed in that year’s Tour who are racing in this. They are Daniel Oss and Edvald Boasson Hagen both of TotalEnergies, Dries Devenyns racing for Soudal Quick Step, former world road race champion Rui Costa of with Intermarché-Circus-Wanty, and Cavendish himself.

With more sprint finishes likely later in this Tour, all that experience will count in the days to come, but the sprint stages are slipping by and Philipsen is showing no sign of slowing down. Cavendish looks to have the speed and is getting closer, but the wait continues.

Guardian