Jasper Philipsen wins sprint to Nimes, Biniam Girmay’s fall opens points race

Jasper Philipsen won the 16th stage of the Tour de France in Nîmes, while Sir Mark Cavendish was unable to win the last sprint stage of his illustrious Tour career.

Philipsen dominated a shortened sprint to beat Phil Bauhaus at the end of the 188.6km stage from Gruissan, claiming his third victory of this Tour after a late crash dropped Biniam Girmay back into contention for the points classification.

Cavendish had too much ground to make up after the peloton split and finished 17th. His record-breaking 35th stage win in Saint-Vulbas in the opening week will likely be his last.

The sprint left no change at the top of the general classification, with Tadej Pogacar holding a lead of just over three minutes over reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard, before the race returns to the Alps.

Philipsen’s ninth stage win in the Tour came thanks to an excellent leadout by world champion Mathieu van der Poel and his team Alpecin-Deceuninck. The Belgian reduced the gap behind Girmay to just 32 points in the battle for green light.

“I’m really happy, especially after such a team effort,” Philipsen said. “It’s always nice when we can win together and I think that’s what we did.

“I didn’t see (the crash). We were always working with our team to position ourselves and focused on our lead-out, so I didn’t see the crash, but I hope everyone is OK.”

After falling to the ground in the final two kilometers, Girmay rolled over the finish line while being treated by his Intermarche-Wanty teammates, suffering obvious cuts to his arm and elbow.

Although his lead in the points classification has shrunk considerably, the Eritrean remains the favourite, given the bumpy terrain over which the remaining intermediate sprints will be fought – provided he does not suffer any permanent damage.

Philipsen said: “Everything is possible, but it’s really difficult because (Girmay) is climbing well. I just hope he’s OK after the crash because he doesn’t deserve to lose it like this.”

In 2008, Nîmes was the scene of Cavendish’s fourth stage win, but in the final sprint stage of his last Tour that would not happen again.

“We were pretty well positioned going into the last bit,” Cavendish said. “But at some of those roundabouts, if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, you lose momentum and that’s it, some guys get through and some guys don’t.

“I heard a few guys coming down, I think Girmay came down too, so the main thing is that they are OK and everyone arrived safely.

“Someone has to win and many people have to lose.”

Cavendish will do his best to enjoy his final five days as a Tour rider, even though the Alpine climbs that lie between him and Nice will make that easier said than done.

“We came here, we did what we wanted to achieve in this Tour de France and we did it early,” he said.

“We are happy. We said that everything we achieved on stage five would be a bonus, so we try, we try to get through, we try to sprint, we try with Harold (Tejada) in the mountains, and we try to reach Nice.”