Jasper Philipsen Wins Stage 10 of Tour de France 2024
Jasper Philipsen charged to victory in Stage 10 of the Tour de France 2024, marking his first win in this year’s race. The 26-year-old Belgian sprinter, supported by his Alpecin-Deceuninck team and led out by world champion Mathieu van der Poel, outpaced Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay and Germany’s Pascal Ackermann.
Philipsen had faced a challenging start to the Tour, with three second-place finishes in the opening week. However, everything fell into place perfectly for him on Tuesday, as he powered to victory by a bike length. Belgium’s Wout van Aert and Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria completed the top five.
Despite the win, the overall standings remained unchanged, with Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar retaining his 33-second lead over Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel. Britain’s Mark Cavendish, aiming for a record-extending 36th victory, was crowded out in the technical finale.
The 187km stage was light on drama but heavy on picturesque scenery, with no significant changes in the overall standings. The peloton rolled along under intermittent showers before three Belgian riders made a brief breakaway. The pace remained slow until the final 10km, when the teams of sprinters took control.
Philipsen’s victory cut Girmay’s green jersey lead from 96 points to 74 points. Philipsen expressed his relief and happiness, saying, “Last week was not a great week – an endless week with some bad luck, of course. I’m really happy, it’s a big relief. We can finally show our strength and together with the lead-out train we did finally what we came for.”
Van der Poel echoed his team-mate’s satisfaction, stating, “I think we did a really good job with the turns. We knew we had to be in front. We performed really well and Jasper finished it off. We told him not to doubt himself and to really go for it.”
The next stage, a 211km ride from Evaux-les-Bains to the ski resort of Le Lioran, will be a tough mountain challenge through the Massif Central, featuring six categorized climbs and over 4,000m of elevation. Fans can catch all the action on Eurosport.