Tour de France: Jasper Philipsen sprints to fourth stage victory of 2023 edition

Jasper Philipsen secured his fourth stage win of the 2023 Tour de France as he produced another powerful sprint to claim victory on stage 11 in Moulins.

The Belgian worked his way up through the bunch and then kicked off the wheel of Dylan Groenewegen, who came second.

The last rider to win four bunch sprints in a single Tour de France was Briton Mark Cavendish in 2021.

Philipsen extends his lead in the green jersey, while Jonas Vingegaard keeps the overall leader’s yellow jersey.

“It is an incredible Tour so far,” Philipsen told ITV Sport afterwards.

“I am super proud and really happy with my shape. To get through the final without problems was also a big challenge, but we managed to do it four times in a row. I am super happy.”

There was little drama for most of Wednesday’s 179.8km route, which started in Clermont-Ferrand, but it ended with a fiercely contested finish.

This time Philipsen did not have the help of his regular lead-out man, Alpecin-Deceuninck team-mate Mathieu van der Poel, but it made no difference to the outcome.

The 25-year-old followed Wout van Aert through a crowd of riders with 500m to go, then found Groenewegen’s wheel before surging past him.

“I can also win without him [Van der Poel], but of course he makes it more easy,” Philipsen added. “I had to find my wheel a little bit, and it is also about finding your space.

“It was hectic so it is dangerous for crashing but I was happy I could find a good wheel of Groenwegen in the end. He opened up early, and I could go over.”

Defending champion Vingegaard retained his 17-second lead over two-time winner Tadej Pogacar.

Thursday’s 12th stage takes the race 168.8km from Roanne to Belleville en Beaujolais, and features five categorised climbs.