Jasper Philipsen outsprints Biniam Girmay to finally win Tour de France stage

It has been a hellish start to the Tour de France for Alpecin-Deceuninck as their leaders lacked the luck and Jasper Philipsen was unable to have the start he had in 2023. But that has ended today; the Belgian sprinter was able to team up with Mathieu van der Poel for a textbook leadout and finally take his win today.

Stage 10 of the race wasn't expected to be attacked hard from the start after what we've seen in the opening day of the race, but perhaps even the peloton itself was surprised by the sheer lack of a single rider attempting to make a move even if for TV exposure.

Absolute calm in the start of the stage without any breakaway attempt. An hour later Harm Vanhoucke and Kobe Goossens temporarily moved off the front of the peloton, but in order to take away points in the intermediate sprint from the likes of Jasper Philipsen - who was the fastest in the peloton, but once again with a dodgy move mid-sprint.

The pace did accelerate later on as the threat of crosswinds put fears in the minds of many. Overall the average speed grew to that of a regular stage from this alone, as the GC teams looked to stay in the head of the peloton permanently in order to avoid being caught out in a potential attack.

But this was an attack that never happened. Instead, a gradual rise of speed in the peloton, and only with a few kilometers to go did the actual sprinter teams hit the front - as the riders reached the final kilometers in which the GC times were taken.

This time around, perhaps as the fatigue sets in the race, the leadouts were very important in the final sprint. The speed was high and this time around Alpecin-Deceuninck were able to bring their men to the front. In the final meters Mathieu van der Poel leadout the group and Jasper Philipsen launched from the front, straight into his first stage win of the race.

Biniam Girmay was a few wheels behind and finished second, but with no chance of overtaking the Belgian. Pascal Ackermann was third with another quality sprint.

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