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Tour de France: Jasper Philipsen motors to win after late crashes on stage four – as it happened

A long, boring day on the Tour ended in high drama at the Nogaro racing circuit as Belgian sprinter Jasper Philipsen prevailed for the second day in a row

• Read our stage four race report
• 4 Jul 2023 Mark Cavendish speaks ...
• 4 Jul 2023 Top five on General Classification
• 4 Jul 2023 The top five in stage four
• 4 Jul 2023 It's another win for Jasper Philipsen!
• 4 Jul 2023 Jasper Philipsen wins stage four!!!
• 4 Jul 2023 Intermediate sprint result
• 4 Jul 2023 Finally, an attack!!!
• 4 Jul 2023 They're off and racing in stage four!
• 4 Jul 2023 General Classification: the top five
• 4 Jul 2023 Philipson survives sprint scrutiny to win in Bayonne
• 4 Jul 2023 Stage four: Dax to Nagaro (181.8km)

Mark Cavendish speaks ...

“Carnage it was,” says the Astana rider. “Every team will have had a plan for that final and I bet there wasn’t any that it went right for, apart from Jumbo getting their guys into that narrow road [at the entrance to the race circuit] early. It was a melting pot of riders in the final and I was constantly analysing who was there, who had other teammates and just jumping from train to train.

“Finally I seen that Mads [Pedersen] had [Jasper] Stuyven with him and they usually go early so I thought I’d use that, but it didn’t happen. In the end the rest of them got the jump on me and it was all about me getting the best finishing position for myself.”

It’s a remarkable bit of analysis, considering the chaos that was unfolding around him. He goes on to express his concern for the welfare of his teammate Luis Leon Sanchez, who was one of several riders to hit the deck in the final couple of kilometres of today’s race.

Top five on General Classification

Adam Yates (UAE Emirates) 18hr 18min 01sec

Tadej Pogacar (UAE EMirates) +06sec

Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) +06sec

Victor Lafay (Cofidis) +12sec

Wout van Aert +16sec

🏆 🇧🇪 @JasperPhilipsen wins in Nogaro! 🏆🇧🇪 @JasperPhilipsen double la mise à Nogaro ! #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/X06zq1v7N2 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 4, 2023

The top five in stage four

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4hr 25min 23sec

Caleb Ewan (Lotto–Dstny)

Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious)

Bryan Coquard (Cofidis)

Mark Cavendish (Astana)

Jasper Philipsen speaks: “It was a really easy stage,” says the stage winner. “I think everyone was trying to save some legs for the Pyrenees tomorrow. In the final kilomtre entering the circuit I heard several crashes around me so I hope everybody is OK and safe. It was a bit of a hectic final with the turns and I lost my team as well but in the ifnal straight I found Mathieu Van der Poel again and he did an amazing pull to get me to victory. My legs were cramping and Caleb was coming close.”

It's another win for Jasper Philipsen!

In chaotic scenes with riders strewn all over the road in the home straight, Mathieu Van der Poel provides another perfect lead-out for Philipsen, who wins by half a wheel from Caleb Ewan. Phil Bauhaus was third for Bahrain Victorious.

Jasper Philipsen wins stage four!!!

The Alpecin–Deceuninck sprinter looks to have won his second consecutive stage by inches from Caleb Ewan.

1km to go: Cofidis are doing a fine job for Bryan Coquard as the riders enter the 800m-long home straight. There’s another crash but Mark Cavendish is still upright.

1.6km to go: Fabio Jakobsen crashes! he won’t be winning today!

3.1km to go: Jumbo-Visma lead the peloton into the entrance of the Nogaro circuit with various riders near the front looking over their shoulders to see where their team-mates are.

4.6km to go: It’s getting more and more technical and the riders from various teams are getting separated from each other and starting to panic a little. Mark Cavendish is still in a good position about 12 riders from the front but Wout van Aert has lost about 30 places.

5km to go: Aussie sprinter Sam Welsford (DSM-Firmenich) elects to go the “wrong” side of a traffic island and drops to near the back of the bunch, having been riding third wheel and in a brilliant position.

8km to go: Some of the teams are riding in train formation, while others are grouped around their sprinter. Mark Cavendish is in the second row of the bunch, riding on the wheel of his teammate Luis Leon Sanchez.

9km to go: The peloton is tightly bunched with riders from eight different teams spread out across the front as we hit the final 10 klilometres of the race. The focus, obviously, is on the sprinters but everybody has his own particular job to do to help deliver their man to the front of the race near the finish line at the most opportune moment.

13km to go: Here, in no particular order, are the names to look out for in the final couple of hundred metres of today’s stage: Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla), Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal- Quick Step), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Mark Cavendish (Astana), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma), Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X) and Sam Welsford (DSM-Firmenich).

17km to go: Having reeled in today’s somewhat half-hearted breakaway, the peloton continue to make their way towards the Nogaro racing circuit, where there’s something of a pinch-point at the entrance, three kilometres from the finish line. They’re riding seven abreast in the peloton at the moment at a speed of 57km per hour.

23km to go: The cycle in the washing machine has started and packed tightly across the road, the riders of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Jumbo Visma, Lotto Dstny, Bahrain Victorius and Bora-Hansgrohe are conspicous in their little groups near the front.

💚 70 years ago, the green jersey was first introduced on the Tour de France. The best sprinters in the history of cycling have fought for it since! 💚 Le maillot vert est né il y a 70 ans sur le Tour ! Depuis, les meilleurs sprinteurs du monde se sont battus pour. #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/ioJyoMXY9e — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 4, 2023

27km to go: In the breakaway, Anthony Delaplace takes the solitary King of the Mountains point available on today’s stage. The gap to the bunch is down to 16 seconds.

28km to go: The riders are tackling today’s only categorised climb, the Cat 4 Cote de Dému, which is two kilometres long and 218m high.

3okm to go:

34km to go: Anthony Delapplace (Arkea Samsic) and Benoit Cosnefory (AG2R Citreon) remain in front of the chasing posse, with a lead of 35 seconds. At the back of that posses, Astana’s Luis Leon Sanchez has a problem with his chain and stops to fix the problem with the help of a passing Cofidis mechanic. He gets back on his back and sets off in pursuit of the bunch.

Peloton politics: “I’m fairly sure that back in the 80s and before, one of the grizzled elder statesmen of the Tour (think Bernard Hinault or Gilbert Duclos-Lasalle) would decide how hard the peloton would ride at any given point,” writes Thomas Atkins. “And if they decided that the peloton was going to have an easy day, then woe betide anyone who attacked and upped the tempo when they weren’t supposed to.”

“It might not be great for viewers and advertisers but it’s arguably no worse than it being dictated by directeurs sportives who have crunched the numbers before the start and decided on precisely the mix of riders who would be allowed to ride off the front until a controlled and entirely predictable catch in the last 20-30kms.”

39km to go: We’re heading towards the business end of the stage, with the entrance to the Nogaro motor racing circuit where today’s race will be concluded approximately three kilometres from the finish.

Here’s Fabio Jakobsen on today’s finish: “Today looks good,” he told Eurosport this morning. “You’ve got a few corners but it’s wide. The last 750m is in as straight line so if you have the horses and the position then you can do it and at least [unlike yesterday] a straight line is a straight line, eh?”

46km to go: “On this slow news day, in Tour de France terms at least, I was wondering what your thoughts were regarding Jasper Philipsen having the ultimate cheat-code for the sprints with Mathieu Van der Poel as lead-out man extraordinaire?” asks Sam Huscroft. “I wonder if Cav’s best bet is to tag on to this ‘train’ and give it the beans?”

I’m not sure that a 38-year-old Cav no longer has the “beans” required to get near Philipsen in an out-and-out sprint. In terms Tory MPs Lee Andrews and Brendan Clarke-Smith might struggle to understand, Philipsen’s beans are of the Heinz variety, compared to the own brand version Cav is reduced to giving these days. The gap is down to 36 seconds.

53km to go: Messrs Cosnefroy and Delaplace are a minute clear of the bunch, which is being led by the riders of Alpecin-Deceuninck at a speed of 57km per hour.

Intermediate sprint result

With so much going on out on the road, it’s taken a while to cobble together the result of the intermediate sprint.

1. Jasper Philipsen (20pts) 2. Bryan Coquard (17) 3. Caleb Ewan (15) 4. Mads Pedersen (13) 5. Jordi Meeus (11) 6. Mark Cavendish (10) 7. Favio Jakobsen (9) 8. Peter Sagan (8) 9. Alexander Kristoff (7) 10. Biniam Girmay (6) 11. Corbin Strong (5) 12. Michal Kwiatkowski (4) 13. Cees Bol (3) 14. Mathieu Van der Poel (2) 15. Jonas Abrahamsen (1)

69km to go: “Belgian TV have just been on the phone with Eddy Merckx,” writes Franky Vlaeminck. “Apparently he’s totally cool with Cavendish potentially beating his record number of wins.”

On Eurosport, former sprinter Robbie McEwan gives Cavendish a “one per cent chance” of winning the stage he needs to beat Merckx’s record during this Tour.

71 km to go: It’s a highlight of the afternoon for the riders as they pass through the feed zone and collete their musttes full of grub.

73km to go: “I’m having a laugh over people’s complaints about the lack of pace and attacks on today’s stage,” writes Dave Hill from Indiana. “These riders, the most extreme athletes in the world, whittle their bodies down to nubs over the course of 2,200 miles at speeds we couldn’t achieve in our dreams, and we’re complaining because they take a few hours to brace themselves for the trials to come? If nothing else, let’s just enjoy the scenery. Or get outside yourself on a ride today. Some people are never satisfied!”

It’s a fair point, well made. After all, some of these riders have spent two whole days whittling their bodies down to nubs in this year’s Tour since it started way, way back last Saturday. The gap is 50 seconds.

81km to go: In an interview with Eurosport, AG2R Citreon team manager Vincent Lavenu says that French TV were complaining that nothing is happening today and want to see some French riders at the head of the race, so he gave Benoit Cosnefroy permission to launch an attack.

His fellow Normandy native, Anthony Delaplace either agreed or was ordered to go with him, although the Arkea Samsic rider looked far less enthused by the prospect of embarking on what will almost certainly be little more than an energy-sapping kamikaze mission.

Finally, an attack!!!

84km to go: Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citreon) and Anthony Delaplace (Arkea Samsic) throw their chapeaux into the ring for today’s combativity award by jumping off the front of the bunch and attacking. It’s Cosnefroy who is in the box-seat for the race number encased in perspex, as he went first before looking over his shoulder to see if anyone might join him. They quickly open a gap of a minute.

88km to go: More excitement! At the front of the bunch, Quinn Simmons puts the hammer down to lead out Mads Pedersen for the intermediate sprint but it’s yesterday’s stage winner Jasper Philipsen who takes maximum points.

92km to go: “Historically, the Tour has been a force for fairness, non-cheating and following the spirt of cycling,” writes Ruaidhrí Groom. “But is there a chance that the peloton are taking it handy today to hand the stage to Cavendish? He should refuse to win such a stage!”

I can’t remember off the top of my head who it was but sone of our readers suggested yesterday that, given the paucity of talent in Cavendish’s team when it comes to leading out their sprinter, it’s not inconceivable that at some point later in the race, assorted mates of his from various teams might go rogue in order to form a train to help him win one of the later stages, much like happened in Rome at the Giro. On that occasion, Geraint Thomas put in a big shift to help deliver Cav to where he needed to be on the final day.

96km to go: Tell Franky (102km to go) that I am 62, have been cycling since I took the stablisers off and I am still bored,” writes Jem Lee. “Been telling mates how exciting the Tour is and what a spectacle it always is – they will think I have lost the plot watching this. I think even I could keep up with them at this rate.”

There are faint signs of life in the peloton as assorted teams start to get their ducks in a row ahead of the intermediate sprint in approxiamtely eight kilometres.

97km to go: With more than half of the stage to go, nothing continues to happen at quite a sedate pace. Good luck to the jury who have to pick the most combative rider from today’s stage. I’ve seen far more aggressive efforts when the traffic lights outside Stockwell Tube station turn green during a morning rush hour.

• Tour de France 2023
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