One year after raising his arms on the Champs-Élysées, in the last sprint of the 2022 Tour, Jasper Philipsen has done it again. This time he has been in Bayonne, in the first stage for sprinters of this edition. The Belgian beat Bauhaus, Ewan, Jakobsen, Wout van Aert and Cavendish with authority after his teammate Mathieu van der Poel made his job easier in the final meters of the stage.
In this way, the Belgian adds his third stage victory in the gala round and confirms himself as one of the sprinters of the moment, very much to be taken into account in this Tour.
Philipsen has taken a highly coveted stage. It was the first route for sprinters, who arrived with long teeth after two stages with traces of classic. Van Aert, a solvent classic in sprints, arrived wanting to remove the thorn at the end in San Sebastián, while the debate continues about whether Vingegaard should have lent him a cable.
Cavendish had the arrival in Bayonne between his eyebrows, thinking of making history and taking his 35th stage victory on the Tour, breaking the tie he has with Eddy Merckx. Caleb Ewan, for his part, was looking to end a season that, again, is proving disappointing.
None of them has been able to keep up with the hunger and legs of Philipsen, who has shown power, the ability to handle the final stretch of a complicated stage and the ability to work as a team.
The first sprint of this round has been decided in the last meter of a 193-kilometre stage that has run between Amorebieta, a town located 15 kilometers from Bilbao, and Baiona, a Basque-French city located in the New Aquitaine region.
After two exceptionally tough stages for what is the beginning of the Tour, the peloton marched at the pace of a cyclist along a route that from kilometer 40 onwards headed for the Basque coast.
The bulk of the stage was marked by a break led, once again, by the American Neilson Powless (Education First), the protagonist 24 hours earlier, and the Frenchman Laurent Pichón (Arkea).
The French cyclist escaped in the first kilometer of the stage and crossed the Bidasoa alone, still with a minute's lead on the peloton. His feat, however, has evaporated when he was circling the cliffs of the elegant Côte Basque. After 154 kilometers away, the peloton has hunted down 40 kilometers from the finish line.
At that moment, just past the Bidasoa, the sprinters have taken the lead in the stage, already with their eyes set on the Adur River and the finish in Bayonne. Eyes were focused on Wout van Aert, after the fiasco in San Sebastián, and on Cavendish. Until Philipsen has broken in from one of the side of the road to show that, a year later, he has the legs to fight.
In this way, the Tour says goodbye to the three stages that have made up the so-called Grand Depart Pays Basque, a much more intense start to the Tour than usual in which, in just three stages, it has been possible to draw important conclusions.
The first is that it is confirmed once again that there are only two candidates to raise their arms in Paris: the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar and the Danish Jonas Vingegaard, current champion of the round.
The two were the first to crown Pike Bidea in the first stage, before heading to Bilbao, and they repeated in the second stage being the strongest at the top of Jaizkibel, the last port before descending towards San Sebastián. Yesterday's stage was a cycling tour for both, but this week they will face each other again in the Pyrenees. The swords are still high.
Another of the conclusions that this Grand Depart leaves is that the candidates for the third drawer of the podium are barely half a dozen riders. Two of the contenders, Enric Mas and Richard Carapaaz withdrew after falling together in the first stage, and others like Thibaut Pinot have shown themselves to be vulnerable on the slopes of the Basque Country.
The Grand Depart Pays Basque, finally, has offered a stupendous image of the Basque roads, with an exultant following of cyclists and an exceptional atmosphere that has been appreciated by runners and teams. The thumbtacks thrown by some brainless in the vicinity of San Sebastián (and the willingness of some to use any excuse to go against an event they never wanted) cannot tarnish three days in which there has been a high-altitude cycling atmosphere. In addition to the two roosters in the peloton, the Basque fans have also been crowned.
