The sprinters were meant to come to the fore on stage 18 of the Tour de France after a brutal period in the Alps, but they were left fuming after being outfoxed by four riders who, ironically, started the race supporting some of the best fast men in the business.
How Kasper Asgreen (Soudal Quick-Step) won the stage from the day’s break that included Lotto Dstny pair Pascal Eenkhoorn and Victor Campenaerts, plus Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X), after being kept on a tight leash all day was a point of conjecture at the finish.
Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-Alula) declined to speak to the media after missing a chance to break Jasper Philipsen’s clean sweep of bunch sprints, having remarked only days earlier how fresh he felt compared to previous Tours, thanks largely to his preparation that focused more on climbing.
“A few years ago, I was always alone or with some riders around me, and now I’m climbing a bit better, it makes the Tour easier to survive,” Groenewegen said after Tuesday’s decisive time trial.
“We did last year Dauphiné, also this year, I think for me it’s a good preparation. A lot of sprinters are at home. If you don’t have the legs to survive all the climbs, then also you can’t sprint in Paris, so that’s what we trained for.
“A lot of people are smiling a little bit that I did Dauphiné but it’s all about surviving this hard Tour de France.
“We all saw Philipsen is in really good shape but also my shape is really good. I feel actually not tired so that’s a good sign. I’m ready for the last sprints and hopefully, we can get one.”
But it wasn’t to be in Bourg-en-Bresse, where Jayco-Alula director of high-performance Matt White echoed the purported mood on the bus – angry – speaking briefly post-race about the lost opportunity.
“You watch television, you saw the final. It is what it is, isn’t it,” White said. “I think there was interesting movement in the final there. It made for great television with so many motorbikes around, but it’s disappointing.
“We committed today and to not catch that breakaway is disappointing.”
Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was the best of the chasing peloton that lost several of its top sprinters, including Asgreen’s teammate Fabio Jakobsen, Eenkhoorn and Campaenaerts’ main man Caleb Ewan, as well as Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) in the first two weeks.
So, two key teams who would have normally been controlling the breakaway on Thursday were actually in the move and cunningly beat the system.
Philipsen, who remains in the green…
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