Jasper Philipsen rolled to the Alpecin-Premier Tech bus, in shimmering heat on the outskirts of Bergerac, and in grim silence he dismounted. No swearing; no tempestuous helmet tosses, like we’d heard about yesterday. But after finishing a second successive stage of the Tour de France some way off the pace, there were some little tells that Philipsen was displeased, like the terse lift up of the saddle and slam of the rear of the bike. Not a bike-smash, but let’s say the kind of move that, if you did it to your own bike, you’d probably have a shame-tinged moment afterward of, "Oh, I feel a bit bad for my bike that I did that."
The last two stages of the Tour de France have been nailed-on sprint stages, and Jasper Philipsen is a top sprinter with one of this generation’s greatest talents – Mathieu van der Poel – riding in his service. On Friday's stage 7, Philipsen finished fifth. Saturday, fourth. His former teammate, Tim Merlier, won both. Philipsen’s results show a kind of progress, one place at a time, but for sprinters like these, that’s not enough to move the needle. The heat doesn’t help, but the coronation of Merlier as this Tour’s sprinter du jour is probably the more pressing concern. So how do you get out of that rut?
A mostly Belgian press pack waited for Philipsen – maybe in the hope of quotes, maybe in the hope of some colour. He didn’t provide too much of either: after the 6.5/10 physical expression of his disappointment, Philipsen vanished into Alpecin's elegantly-outfitted adjacent ice-bath vehicle. Not for an ice bath, for an escape. A staff-member with a blue clipboard followed, as a kind of emotional-support person. We waited, listening for yells, watching for helmets.
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