Chaotic final for some, the dream for Jasper Philipsen. Already the winner on Monday, in Bayonne, the Belgian sprinter from the Alpecin-Deceuninck team won ahead of Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dstny) on Tuesday, during a long soporific fourth stage. And this before an electric sprint, marked by several falls on the Nogaro circuit. Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) takes third place, ahead of Frenchman Bryan Coquard (Cofidis). With this second finish in a row in the sprint, no notable change to report in the general classification, with Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) still ahead of his teammate Tadej Pogacar in the lead and in Yellow.
This fourth 182km stage promised to be calm between Dax and Nogaro, the least we can say is that the riders did not prove the predictions wrong. For this second consecutive flat stage, there were no major difficulties apart from the Côte de Dému at 30km from the finish. For 110 long kilometers, no breakaway has emerged, we were heading for a first since September 2020. After two demanding first days of racing in the Basque Country and the arrival of the Pyrenees tomorrow with a beautiful mountain stage, the teams did not wish to send runners to the outposts. After an intermediate sprint won by the future green jersey Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin, Deuceunink), two French people animated the race. The two Normans, Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën) and Anthony Delaplace (Arkéa Samsic) started at the front of the race to stretch their legs but were quickly suppressed by the peloton. The packs of sprinters never let the two runaways take more than a two-minute lead. After 25km at full speed, and a hill of Dému crossed in the lead, Cosnefroy the combative of the day and Delaplace were swallowed up by the peloton.
In the final packing, the riders rubbed a lot and made irregularities so as not to lose their trajectory. Despite good trains, some outsiders were left out of the final sprint: Welsford for DSM, Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma lost their teammates’ wheels late in the stage and Fabio Jakobsen crashed with Caleb Ewan’s pilot fish Jacopo Guarnieri. In the last km, the tricolor Bryan Coquard was perfectly taken by his teammate Alexis Renard but in vain. The French sprinter finished in a good 4th place and went through many crashes. On the line, we take the same ones and we start again. The best sprinter in the world Jasper Philipsen won for the second time in this 2023 edition, he won his fourth consecutive massive sprint on the Grande Boucle. On the other steps of the podium, Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dtsny) takes second place and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) third.
On Wednesday, the peloton will climb the towers: first mountain stage. 168 km between Pau and Laruns, including the ascent of the Col de Soudet (HC) or the Col de Marie Blanque (1).
