Jasper Philipsen is the king of the sprinters at this year’s Tour de France, speeding to his fourth victory in 11 stages on Wednesday. Alpecin-Deceunick’s Belgian has an enormous lead in the points classification. Jonas Vingegaard kept safe in the yellow jersey. The top Canadian was Hugo Houle in 67th.
The Course
Considerably less lumpy than Tuesday’s profile, the 180 km from Clermont-Ferrand to Moulins held two early Cat. 4 climbs and then another at the start of the final third. It screamed “bunch sprint!” There was some cooling rain in the latter half of the day.
Some small climbs on the course of #TDF2023 stage 11, but many teams will hope the race comes down to a bunch sprint in Moulins. pic.twitter.com/QXS9lrsWRm
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 12, 2023
Not a parcours to draw a large breakaway, only three chaps bothered to fly their flags. Daniel Oss, Andrey Amador and Matis Louvel hit the day’s intermediate sprint at the 70 km mark with a 2:00 lead. Jasper Philipsen strengthened his hold on the green jersey by earning the most points out of the peloton.
By the midway point, Oss and pals were only 1:00 ahead of the field. With 60 km to go, the last of the classified climbs were behind the riders. Oss was the last man standing in the end, carry on in the heavier rain.
Oss returned to the fold with 11 km to go. The colour blocks got serious as Moulins loomed. Road furniture messed with the flow. Jumbo-Visma had the bit in its teeth. At 3 km remaining, some riders could relax a bit. Uno-X led under the 2-km-to-go banner but Alpecin-Deceuninck held the reins a kilometer later. Sixteen guys headed into the final 500 metres.
Dylan Groenewegen went down the middle and Philipsen followed, making a precise move to come around on the right and take his fourth.
A triplet of 5-km climbs in the final third of Thursday’s stage will encourage a big breakaway.
2023 Tour de France Stage 11
1) Jasper Philipsen (Belgium/Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4:01:07
2) Dylan Groenewegen (The Netherlands/Jayco-AlUla) s.t.
3) Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) s.t.
67) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +0:07
81) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +0:35
103) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +1:00
2023 Tour de France GC
1) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) 46:34:27
2) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +0:17
3) Jai Hindley…
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