The Belgian Jasper Philipsen came back in the last meters after falling behind in the final kilometer and defeated Dylan Groenewegen with authority to claim his fourth victory in this edition of the 2023 Tour de France, which played its eleventh day in French territory.
After the hard day on Tuesday, the stage was quiet for the competitors in the yellow jersey, a classification that did not change. The most prominent Latin American rider was the Costa Rican Andrey Amador, involved in the initial escape.
This Wednesday, July 12, the segment took place on a flat 180-kilometre route starting in Clermont-Ferrand and finishing in Moulins. Again in a sprint definition, Jasper Philipsen prevailed, getting his fourth victory out of five possibilities so far in this edition.
In a frantic finish, the Alpecin team sprinter overtook Dylan Groenewegen despite not having a throwing train from his team as in previous definitions. The podium was closed by the German Phil Bauhaus.
Entering the decisive kilometer, Philipsen had not been well positioned and the absence of his teammate Mathieu Van Der Poel made us think that it would not be the day for the Belgian. But he with a lot of skill he climbed positions with 500 meters remaining to end up beating Groenewegen.
“Everything went well today, even though Mathieu (Van der Poel) wasn’t here. He wasn’t feeling very well, he caught a bit of a cold, but I think he could have saved some energy for tomorrow’s stage as well,” said the sprinter. who equaled Mark Cavendish’s mark in 2021 with the most wins on a Tour. With one more he will reach the German Marcel Kittel in 2017.
Again the dispute was alien to Wout van Aert and Fabio Jakobsen. Despite the fact that their teams formed the launch train and sought to position themselves so that they could take off, neither of them had the strength to fight in a sprint.
In the dispute for the yellow jersey, the picture remains the same. Jumbo-Visma’s squad stayed at the front of the pack and protected Jonas Vingegaard. “It was hectic again today, but my team kept me safe up front, that’s what they’re really good at,” he said.
While Tadej Pogacar was immersed in the middle of the main group, far from the limelight. The Dane leads with a time of 46h 34′ 27”, 17 seconds more than the Slovenian from the UAE Emirates. The podium, at the moment, is completed by the Australian Jai Hindley, at 2’40”.
Andrey Amador, protagonist in the escape
The Costa Rican was one of the entertainers of the stage, composing the initial break with the Italian Daniel Oss and the French Matîs Louvel. However, the ‘tico’ was captured by the peloton 40 kilometers from the end.
“We knew it was a sprint day and it was not ideal to break away with only three men. If we had been more, with the wind at our back at the end, there were options to arrive, but only three was difficult,” he said.
In addition, he said that the team ordered him to give up the escape so as not to “waste strength” and save energy for tomorrow’s demanding test.
In general, the best Latin American continues to be the Colombian Egan Bernal despite having dropped one position, standing 31st after almost 37 minutes. One place below is his compatriot Harold Tejada.
While Esteban Cháves and Daniel Martínez appear 58th and 59th, respectively. Rigoberto Urán is 100° and Amador, 139°.