Following his Tour de France stage 16 win, sprinter Jasper Philipsen recognised that he now had a small likelihood of conquering the inexperienced jersey for a second yr working. However with solely hilly or mountainous levels and a time trial left on this yr’s Tour, the Belgian star was undoubtedly not counting his ‘factors chickens’ earlier than they had been hatched.
“About 5%,” Philipsen responded when requested how nice his possibilities had been of carrying inexperienced on the ultimate podium of the Tour de France, which is able to now hinge on factors received and misplaced within the 4 remaining intermediate sprints between Nîmes and Good.
Philipsen and present inexperienced jersey holder Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) have now received three levels apiece within the 2024 race. Nevertheless, Girmay, who has a greater run of placings up to now, was unlucky sufficient to crash closely on the run-in to Nîmes.
Girmay then accomplished the stage, partly supported by two of his teammates, however because of his fall he misplaced an opportunity of including to his factors jersey complete. Philipsen, in the meantime, re-entered the battle for inexperienced as a mixed results of Girmay’s setback and his third stage victory within the 2024 Tour just some minutes later.
Requested about his probabilities of regaining inexperienced given this radically modified state of affairs, Philipsen recognised that combating for factors in intermediate sprints within the Alps, beginning with stage 17 to Superdevoluy on Wednesday, was a good distance from his favoured battlegrounds of flat finishes like at Nîmes.
“Yeah, it´s totally different, I can not fully empty the tank in intermediate sprints as a result of I nonetheless should climb up the mountains,” Philipsen advised reporters.
“Individuals say I’m nearer to the inexperienced jersey now, however the primary sprints are over. The distinction between us [32 points] isn’t loads, but when there aren’t any dash levels left, it is virtually unattainable.
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“On the similar time, it´s good to have a small objective for the approaching days, and to see if I can get some factors as an alternative of simply driving round and with my solely goal making an attempt to get to Good.
“All the things is feasible, however it’ll be actually laborious. Biniam is climbing rather well and I simply hope he is OK after the crash, as a result of he would not should lose like this, both.”
Even earlier than Girmay’s crash and his ninth Tour bunch dash win, although, Philipsen confirmed that he had not wholly given up on the factors combat when he went for an intermediate dash throughout stage 16.
On the dash at Les Matellettes (km 96.1) Philipsen completed second behind Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), whereas Girmay claimed fourth. Consequently, he regained 4 factors on Girmay.
Philipsen´s greatest probabilities of getting extra intermediate sprints factors will seemingly come on Wednesday at Veynes (km 114.8), as there aren’t any categorized climbs coming beforehand.
He´ll then have one other good likelihood on stage 19 to Isola, which is rather more mountainous total, however the place the dash could be very early within the day (km 21.1). Every intermediate dash affords 20 factors to the winner.
That is all comparatively small fare in comparison with when Philipsen received the inexperienced jersey for a primary time in his profession again in 2023 with a whopping remaining 119-point lead over Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek). This time, Girmay has 376 factors and Philipsen 344, whereas Coquard is in third place with a distant 179 factors, which means that solely the Intermarché-Wanty sprinter or the Alpecin-Deceunink rider has any likelihood in any respect of inexperienced in Good on Sunday.
No matter occurs, although, Philipsen can have a good time taking three levels in a race which couldn’t have began extra badly, with first a crash in Turin after which a relegation within the opening week. On prime of that, as he mentioned, his preliminary Tour type was not supreme – one thing that has modified dramatically within the final week.
“I’ve talked about it with the staff and for certain we’ll analyse it,” Philipsen mentioned after successful his third stage in eight days and when requested about his poor begin. “I used to be lacking a number of share factors, however I´m feeling a lot better proper now.
“I had unhealthy luck within the first a part of the Tour, too, however you possibly can’t blame the whole lot on unhealthy luck, there’s additionally some luck that you simply make for your self.”
As for successful instantly after a relaxation day within the Tour on stage 10 and once more after a relaxation day on stage 16, he put it right down to “simply coincidence. In fact, my form has been higher, too, however I used to be feeling actually motivated every time. I used to be good to go.”
The important thing query at this level is what’s motivating him and different sprinters to complete the Tour, give the utter lack of dash alternatives from this level onwards.
Even Tadej Pogačar mentioned after stage 16 that he hoped the race organisation would prolong the time restrict on the ultimate time trial on Sunday, purely to encourage the quick males to remain all the way in which to the end in Good.
“It´s query,” mentioned Philipsen, who received the ultimate stage on the Champs Elysées in 2022, when requested what was inspiring him for 5 extra days of struggling in 2024.
“Being so near inexperienced makes for an additional objective relatively than simply wanting to finish the race, in fact. However I’ll should push some actually excessive numbers within the gruppetto, simply to make sure I end contained in the time restrict every day within the Alps.”
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