Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen sprinted to his third stage victory at the 2024 Tour de France after Biniam Girmay suffered a late crash on stage 16.
Philipsen’s Alpecin-Deceuninck team dominated in the closing stages in Nimes before the 26-year-old broke clear to the line.
Eritrean Girmay was unable to contest the sprint after falling inside the final kilometre and subsequently saw Philipsen reduce his lead in the green jersey competition to 32 points.
Mark Cavendish, who broke the Tour stage wins record two weeks ago, crossed the line in 17th position in the final sprint stage of his Tour de France farewell before a mountainous conclusion to this years’ race.
Tadej Pogacar retained the leader’s yellow jersey and protected his lead of three minutes nine seconds over two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard.
Remco Evenepoel remains in third position, five minutes nine seconds off the overall lead.
A relatively quiet stage 16 always looked destined to end in a bunch sprint, with a solo attack by Thomas Gachignard, of Total Energies, providing the only action at the front of the race until the French 23-year-old was caught with 25km remaining.
With this the final opportunity for the sprinter’s teams to claim victory before the race returns to the Alps, a frenetic finale unfolded.
As Alpecin-Deceuninck raised the pace, Girmay’s misfortune left nobody able to challenge Philipsen as he added to his victories on stages 10 and 13.
Girmay, who became the first black African to win a Tour de France stage with the first of his three successes on stage three, was escorted to the line by his Intermarche-Wanty team-mates.
He must now aim to recover quickly as Philipsen challenges for the green jersey, which appeared to be out of reach before the start of the Tour’s final week.
“I was feeling good. I had a good rest day and I feel like my shape has improved during this Tour de France. Every stage win is really hard to get, we can be proud,” Philipsen said.
On the points competition, he added: “Everything is possible, but Biniam is climbing really well. I just hope he’s fine because he doesn’t deserve to lose like this.”
Stage 17 on Wednesday is a 177.8km mountain stage from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Superdevoluy in the southern alps.