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Tour de France stage 11 report: Philipsen makes it four with a dominant display in Moulins

Jasper Philipsen leaves no doubt with a convincing sprint victory.

Jasper Philipsen wins stage 11 of the Tour de France. Photo: Luca Bettini/SCA/Cor Vos © 2023

Dane Cash
by Dane Cash 12.07.2023 More from Dane +

Even with a hat trick of victories already in the bag at this year’s Tour de France, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was plenty hungry for more on Wednesday, and he left no room for doubt en route to yet another sprint win on stage 11, his fourth of this race and the sixth in his career.

Freelancing and surfing wheels in this finale more than he had in other sprints so far, Philipsen weaved his way into position behind Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) in the final few hundred meters. He stayed in Groenewegen’s slipstream for a moment when the Dutchman launched, and then Philipsen opened his own sprint, exploding to the front and taking a clear and convincing win in Moulins.

Groenewegen settled for second with Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) taking third. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and the rest of the big GC names finished safely in the peloton.

Brief results

  1. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
  2. Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla)
  3. Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious)
  4. Bryan Coquard (Cofidis)
  5. Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X) all at same time

General classification

  1. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 42:33:13
  2. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) @ :17
  3. Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) @ 2:40
  4. Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) @ 4:22
  5. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) @ 4:34

Brief analysis

A sprinter-friendly stage in central France was a good day for the iconic riding-through-fields-of-sunflowers photos at the Tour de France. Photo: Luca Bettini/SCA/Cor Vos © 2023

What’s next: Stage 12 preview

After traversing a relatively uncomplicated profile on stage 11, the peloton will head into the hills for a very breakaway-friendly stage 12. Across 169 km of racing from Roanne to Belleville-en-Beaujolais, the peloton will tackle two early third-category climbs and some uncategorized climbs before a trio of climbs in the final 60 km (a Cat 3 and then a pair of Cat 2s) will give the more aggressive riders an opportunity to attack. It will be a tough one to predict, with the likes of Julian Alaphilippe, Neilson Powless, Giulio Ciccone, Matteo Jorgensen, and Mike Woods all among the potential stage hunters.

Best of social media

Wednesday provided television viewers with one of the best team radio bits so far in the race, though we’re not really sure what it means or if it’s all just a joke. Feel free to weigh in …

Further reading

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