Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has used his speed and bike handling to win stage 3 of the Tour de France after a slightly sketchy moment just before the line when Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) tried to pass him on the outside.
While Philipsen took a no-nonsense approach to the finish, moving to his right to close the door on Van Aert a little, a slight change in road direction, and the set-up of the roadside barriers, combined to squeeze Van Aert out of the sprint.
He sat up after almost clipping the barriers - and very nearly colliding with Philipsen, who won the 193.5km stage from Amorebieta-Etxano to Bayonne after a brilliant lead-out by his team. Mathieu van der Poel did the last turn on the front for Philipsen, who then stepped up with a huge burst of power. Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) took 2nd with Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dstny) placing 3rd.
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Fabio Jakobsen, whose Soudal-QuickStep team dominated the front of the peloton for most of the final 5km, could only manage 4th. Van Aert was 5th and Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team), chasing a record-breaking 35th stage win, was 6th, showing he is there or thereabouts.
Jordi Meeus, the Belgian sprinter picked by Bora-hansgrohe for the Tour ahead of Ireland's Sam Bennett, placed 7th today. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) retained the yellow jersey and still leads by six seconds from his team mate, Tadej Pogačar, with his twin brother, Simon Yates (Team Jayco AlUla), in 3rd and also at six seconds.
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Speaking after the stage, and having looked at the replay nervously (see second video below) to check his sprint was OK, Philipsen conceded he had "a bit of a doubt". But he was clearly relieved the result stood, after a VAR check.
"It was tense but it's the Tour de France and there are no presents to nobody so I think everybody goes all in," he said. "And I think I can be really happy with our team performance today. We had a great lead-out. Jonas (Rickaert) took the first part and then Mathieu (van der Poel) did a fantastic job and I'm really happy to keep it to the finish line."
He said it was "amazing" to have a lead-out man like Van der Poel "because you just know no other lead-out will pass him". While the final was "tricky" he tried to take the shortest route to the line and now he was hopeful of taking more stage wins and defending the green jersey.
