Fantastic 4! Jasper Philipsen continues his dominance of Tour de France bunch sprints

The last chance for the sprinters before the Alps make an appearance at the 2023 Tour de France, stage 11 was won in a bunch sprint by Jasper Philipsen who continues to prove his dominance.

Stage 11 is the final sprint stage of the Tour de France for a while before the riders reach the hilly and mountainous terrain. Into Moulins the riders will find a relatively hilly day, however it should be possible to control the race.

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Three riders decided to try their luck with denying the sprint teams from the breakaway, Andrey Amador (EF Education-EasyPost), Matis Louvel (Team Arkéa Samsic) and Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies).

After the properly rapid day on stage 10, it's fair to say the racing on stage 11 wasn't quite at the same level. The breakaway, keen to save their legs were rolling through at a relatively relaxed pace and the peloton not keen on catching them just yet, was doing the same.

With just under 60km to go though, that all changed. With the threat of crosswinds and echelons, anyone and everyone began to try and get to the front of the peloton.

Though no echelons formed the upping of the pace quickly brought an end to the day out of two of the breakaway riders, only Oss remaining some 46 seconds ahead with 35km to go.

With 20km to go that lead was just 12 seconds and a few kilometres later he had been caught.

From there it was all about the sprint trains and the battle for position at the front of the peloton.

All the general classification riders safely navigated their way through the 3km to go banner with Jumbo-Visma holding the front of the race.

In the final, there was plenty of shoulder barging and nudging for position between the sprinters.

Dylan Groenewegen launched first but as the line neared, it was Jasper Philipsen once again who proved to be the strongest, powering his way around to take his fourth victory of the race.

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