Jasper Philipsen finally breaks winless streak at Tour de France: "I am happy and relieved that we were now able to show our strength with the lead out train"

Jasper Philipsen has had it all in the first week of the Tour de France. Second places, relegations and swearing on the bus behind cameras but that was the path to take into his first victory of the edition. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider finally showed his best level today alongside his leadout and managed to win even comfortably in Saint-Amand-Montrond. 

“Last week was not a good week for our team, although we had some bad luck of course. I am happy and relieved that we were now able to show our strength with the lead out train," Philipsen said in a post-race interview. "We have put together the perfect sprint preparation, we were finally able to do what we came for. Although it was tricky with that corner at the end.” However it was more tricky for riders who were behind him, with no leadout and little guidance into the final meters.

Whilst Philipsen in the meantime had had Robbe Ghys and Mathieu van der Poel enter the final meters of the race in the head of the peloton, and managed to keep the speed high enough that no-one tried to surprise the Belgian. Starting the sprint from the best position, Philipsen was able to outsprint Biniam Grimay and Pascal Ackermann to win by over a bike length.

“Everyone in the team is growing in the Tour. Maybe I did not start the Tour in the best shape, but we feel healthy and good now," he states, with similar words to those of Mathieu van der Poel over the past few days. "It is already stage 10, we had five sprints without a win. But the team always believed in us. It is good to start the second week with a stage win.”

This was the first day that the Alpecin machine worked in full smoothness and the results are here to show for. Although Girmay finished second, the Belgian managed to close the gap to the points classification leader slightly, and now has 193 against Girmay's 267.

“There are still some nice stages to come, where I want to play my strength. The green? Biniam Girmay is doing a strong Tour so far. He's ahead by a lot of points, and I was focused on stage wins first. Now I'm looking forward to the next one, we want as many as possible. And then we'll see where we end up."