VOIRON, France : Jasper Philipsen powered to victory in a bunch sprint on stage 17 of the Tour de France on Wednesday, cutting his deficit to points classification leader Mads Pedersen, while overall leader Tadej Pogacar safely retained the yellow jersey.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider claimed his first stage victory of this year’s race after edging Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) and Olav Kooij (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) at the end of the 174.7-km ride from Chambery to Voiron. Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) finished eighth.
Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) crossed safely with the main contenders to preserve his overall lead of four minutes and 32 seconds over Remco Evenepoel.
“I had to wait until stage 17 to win … it’s one for the team who kept believing in me,” Philipsen said after teammate Mathieu van der Poel delivered a perfectly timed lead-out in the final sprint.
The stage began at a frantic pace, with early crashes disrupting the peloton. Davide Ballerini hit the ground after a roundabout, while a separate incident also brought down Tom Pidcock and Lenny Martinez, although both quickly remounted.
An early breakaway established a sizeable advantage with around 100 km remaining, while Pogacar, Evenepoel, Philipsen and Pedersen stayed in the peloton, conserving energy.
Pedersen attacked with 65 km left to bridge across to the leaders, joining a six-man break that also featured Ben Healy and Jasper Stuyven, as the peloton trailed by more than five minutes. Philipsen later launched his own chase.
Stuyven attacked on the Col de la Colombe with 26 km remaining and opened a lead of 50 seconds, but an expanded chasing group containing both Philipsen and Pedersen gradually reeled him in before making the catch with 3.7 km to go.
Josh Tarling attempted a late solo move inside the final kilometre, but Van der Poel shut it down before launching Philipsen, who sprinted clear to secure victory.
The Tour heads back into the mountains on Thursday for stage 18, a 185.2-km route from Voiron to Orcieres-Merlette. With three consecutive mountain stages remaining before Sunday’s finish in Paris, Evenepoel will have his final opportunities to cut into Pogacar’s overall advantage.
