The Circuit Paul Armagnac in Nogaro, south-western France has played host to many feats of speed over the years, from touring cars and truck racing to four-time para-cycling Olympic champion Alessandro Zanardi’s track record in a F3000 car 32 years ago.
Its latest came as the high-speed mini-train of Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen blasted to another victory at this year’s Tour de France, the Belgian sprinter taking his second win in as many days on stage 4 and with it the green jersey.
Van der Poel hit the front of the race just 330m from the end of the largely quiet 181.8km stage, depositing his man at 150m to go amid a crash-hit finale on the winding tarmac of the circuit.
Along the way, several riders hit the ground, with the most notable incident coming at 1.8km to go when Fabio Jakobsen was a faller. The European champion went down on a sweeping left-hander on the circuit having been caught between Philipsen and an Israel Premier Tech rider.
Shortly after the finish, Bora-Hansgrohe fastman Danny van Poppel threw an accusation in Philipsen’s direction, telling NOS: “Sometimes you see someone doing something really stupid, and sometimes they do it on purpose. It is no different with Jasper. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. But I’m not saying that he did is on purpose – it’s part of sprinting.”
In the post-race press conference following the podium ceremony which saw him don the green jersey as the new leader of the points classification, Philipsen refuted any suggestion that he had caused Jakobsen’s crash, which also saw Lotto-Dstny’s Jacopo Guarnieri go down.
“I think I followed my team and of course, I felt that Fabio was there, but in my eyes, he went in a gap where there was no room,” Philipsen said.
“For sure, there was also somebody on the right side, so I don’t know what happened exactly because it happened so fast. I don’t want to crash anybody, let’s make that clear. I want to have a fair sprint and it’s not my intention to crash anybody.”
For his part, Philipsen’s teammate Van der Poel admitted that the circuit was dangerous, perhaps too much so, given all the bends in the final kilometres.
“It was very dangerous,” Van der Poel said after the finish. “In my eyes, it was even more so than yesterday, despite the fact that we were on a circuit. If you put so many bends in a normal road like yesterday, you’ll get comments. But apparently, it’s allowed on a circuit.”
The finish, which also saw Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious), Luis León…
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