Tour de France Stage 4: Repetition for Philipsen

For this fourth stage, the riders departed from Dax to reach the Nogaro circuit, a quite short flat stage of 182 km.

Yesterday, for the first flat stage of this Tour de France 2023, Jasper Philipsen won, ahead of Phil Bauhaus and Caleb Ewan. Adam Yates kept his yellow jersey, as did Pogacar with his white Best Young Rider jersey. Neilson Powless strengthened his red polka dot white jersey. Our French rider, Victor Lafay, collected points at the intermediate sprint, which allowed him to keep his green jersey. He has the same number of points as Jasper Philipsen in the sprinter’s classification.

A very peaceful start to the race

Starting from Dax, no rider attempted to join the day’s breakaway. A few brave souls tried to gain ground, but no breakaway managed to create a real gap from the peloton. The stage had no concrete objective before the intermediate sprint at 93 km after the start. There was only a 4th category climb on the route at kilometer 154. Maybe a puncheur’s acceleration could happen, but it’s hard to tell. It’s not very long, only 2 km, with an average slope of 3.5%.

Intermediate sprint for Philipsen

There was very little activity at the start of this fourth stage, but luckily, the intermediate sprint was there to wake us up. The peloton finally sped up, and Jasper Philipsen took the 20 points. He was perfectly launched by his team and his lead-out man, Mathieu Van Der Poel.

The race heats up

It wasn’t until the last 80 kilometers that Benoît Cosnefroy launched an attack accompanied by his compatriot Anthony Delaplace. They had a one-minute lead 80 km from the finish. Meanwhile, the peloton finally started to ride actively.

With 25 km remaining, Anthony Delaplace crossed the summit of the 4th category climb in the lead. They were soon caught back by the peloton.

Philipsen wins on the Nogaro circuit

The last 10 kilometers were covered at a crazy speed. As they approached the Nogaro circuit, European champion Jakobsen was caught in a crash; another crash occurred 500 meters from the finish line, but no favorites were involved. Perfectly launched by Van Der Poel, Philipsen won ahead of Ewan. He will wear the green jersey tomorrow, with this second consecutive victory.

Yates maintains his yellow jersey despite the numerous crashes in the final peloton.

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