04/07/2023

Jasper Philipsen takes photo finish victory in crash marred sprint on stage 4 of the Tour de France

In the second successive bunch sprint as this year's edition of the Tour de France it was - who proved to be the fastest in the peloton in a crash-marred finale for his second straight victory.

The Tour de France has settled down after an explosive weekend, and stage 4 should see a second bunch sprint after Jasper Philipsen rode to victory on the first one of this year's race, on yesterday's stage 3.

"Luckily we didn't fall. The fences came close and I nearly hit the people hanging over them" - Wout van Aert incident with Jasper Philipsen in stage 3 finale at the Tour de France

Somewhat strangely, there was no one interested in forming an early breakaway. As such the peloton rolled along for the first half of the stage at a pace that could best be describes as casual.

With just over 120km to go though the race suddenly ignited with Wout van Aert on the front setting an infernal pace. Those riders who had been taking it easy and trying not to fall asleep were suddenly at risk of being caught out.

A few kilometres later, it was all calmed down with the elastic not having snapped, although the calm of the early portion of the stage had somewhat lessened.

Jasper Philipsen took the maximum points in the intermediate sprint ahead of Bryan Coquard in second and Caleb Ewan in third.

Then finally, a couple of riders did decide to go up the road, Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën Team) and Anthony Delaplace (Team Arkéa Samsic).

With 25km to go they were reeled back in by the peloton and once again there was an early focus on preparing the sprint trains.

For the second straight day, the fight for position was a fierce one with numerous teams both sprint-focused and GC-focused all wanting to hold the front of the bunch.

There was absolute chaos caused by a pair of roundabouts on either side of the 5km to go marker with some of the trains being scattered.

All the main GC riders were successfully and safely guided through the 3km.

Onto the racetrack with 2.3km to go and it was Bahrain - Victorious on the front with Matej Mohoric. Then there was disaster for Fabio Jakobsen as he hit the deck hard.

As the sprints opened up, there were two further crashes but in the final it was a photo finish between Jasper Philipsen and Caleb Ewan. Philipsen taking it.