Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has taken his second stage victory of Tour de France 2024 into Pau on a day when Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) was badly caught out and missed his chance at the sprint finish.
Though Philipsen was left without team support at the end of a very challenging 165km crosswind-hit stage 13, he showed great strength in moving up to the front of the reduced peloton at the finish.
And when Christophe Laporte hit the front to lead out Visma-Lease a Bike team mate, Wout van Aert, Philipsen played his cards as the riders in front of him messed up a little.
Laporte, perhaps with no legs left after a tough day out, pulled over 50-100 metres too early, leaving Van Aert on the front too far from the finish to go for broke. Philipsen then passed Van Aert, kicking for the line to win.
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? A pefect leadout for @WoutvanAert, but Jasper the Master strikes again for #TDF2024 stage win No.2 ! Relive the final KM here ⤵️
? Un lancement parfait pour @WoutvanAert mais c'est Jasper the Master qui l'emporte une deuxième fois sur ce #TDF2024! Revivez le dernier KM ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/AMuqoDQr3q
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 12, 2024
And though Van Aert was able to get into the slipstream of Philipsen and then made a good effort to get around him, Philipsen had the staying power to keep his effort going all the way to the line. Van Aert was a close 2nd, with Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) 3rd.
Points classification leader, and three-time stage winner, Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) had to be content with 4th place today.
Ireland's Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) finished in the 75-rider main field today, in 34th place, while compatriot Bennett was back the road. Bennett was in a group 13:29 down, and was 144th on the stage.
Bennett was among several groups of riders to lose out when the race split in crosswinds with about 50-60km to go and he never got close to the front again. Though there was a crash in the sprint finish, none of the general classification riders was caught up in it.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who was 9th on the stage today, still leads overall by 1:06 from Remco Evenepoel (Soudal QuickStep). Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) is 3rd at 1:14 ahead of a big weekend of climbing.
