Jasper Philipsen claimed a second stage win in the 2024 Tour de France in Pau after a series of failed attacks in the final kilometers paved the way for another crossing the line the road. The Belgian avoided a serious crash in the final kilometer to hold off Jonas Vingegaard’s Wisma rental bike team-mate Wout Van Aert at Place Verdun Aert ).
As the peloton entered the final five kilometres, Vengergaard’s team were struggling to protect their lead, with leader Tadej Pogacar and second-placed Remko Evenpeol also trying to avoid that The accident that led to the failure of Primoz Roglic’s 24-hour challenge.
In the final stages of the Tour de France before heading into the Pyrenees and back-to-back summits on Saturday and Sunday, the sprinters and their teams had been expected to dominate the race, but that was not to be as average speeds approached 50 km/h, coupled with unstable conditions, caused the large group to break up many times.
There may only be two Category 4 climbs on this route, but gusty crosswinds wreak havoc on riders almost from the start. Attack after attack led to a series of splits and crazy chases, and the top three overall, Pogacar, Evan Naple and Vengergaard, were very active every time.
The high speed, sustained attack and undulating sprint towards Pau dashed the hopes of several leading sprinters, including Mark Cavendish, who was left behind in a small group and fell behind. It was another fateful day for the record-breaking stage winner, who was part of a group that was hit by a crosswind and within 60 kilometers of Pau.
Roglic, who finished second overall in the 2020 Tour de France, failed to compete in stage 13 of the Tour de France after crashes on consecutive stages. The Slovenian slipped to sixth overall after crashing on Thursday and his team said he was withdrawing from the Tour to focus on “future goals”.
“Primoz was carefully examined by our medical team after yesterday’s stage and again this morning,” the Bora-Hansgrohe team said before the start of the Agen stage. “It has been decided that he will not start.”
As Cavendish hinted on Thursday morning, Covid-19 is once again plaguing the peloton, while Pogacar’s Emirates team lost one of its key climb deputies, Juan Ayouso, to the race after withdrawing from the race due to the virus. Clearly weakened.
Newsletter Promotion Post
Defending champion Vengergaard also wore a mask at the start of the stage but said it was just a “precautionary measure”.
