It was difficult to detect any sign of disappointment in Jasper Philipsen as he arrived back at the Alpecin-Deceuninck team bus in the Colombey-les-Deux-Églises drizzle on Saturday afternoon, a stark contrast to the mood in Dijon after his relegation on Thursday.
Yet again, Philipsen finished in second place in another Tour de France stage, this time narrowly beaten by Biniam Girmay, but there were no histrionics this time, no fists slammed onto car bonnets or objects thrown inside the bus.
Instead, just a few words were exchanged with the waiting wives and girlfriends of the riders, an over-excited puppy was given some attention and then the Belgian fastman climbed inside the bus for the sanctuary of a hot shower and a brief few minutes peace to gather his thoughts before facing the throng of waiting journalists and television crews gathering outside.
Did he make any mistakes on the uphill finishing drag at the base of the hill below the Mémorial Charles-de-Gaulle? “Not that I know of,” Philipsen said.
“I think in the end it was a pretty tough finish and I didn’t feel great today so I was a bit surprised I was still second. But I think it’s a finish that Girmay also suits very well though so he deserved to win.
“I think we just need to get it right and we need to have smaller adjustments and then the win will come also.”
“I think it will turn around,” he added regarding his team’s fortune. “If we can be second, we can win as well. And once we have a bit better luck then we’re on the move.”
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Philipsen won four stages at the Tour 18 months ago on the way to winning the green jersey in Paris. This time out he has managed three second places so far, with one of them not standing after he was judged to have blocked off Wout van Aert during the sprint in Dijon won by Dylan Groenewegen.
“I didn’t have the best legs today,” Philipsen explained. “It was a tough day. I think we had a deserved winner and we have to look at the next opportunities.
“I think the numbers are good. We just need a little bit more luck and some momentum and then the result will come.”
Philipsen was left frustrated after relegation in Dijon
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Alpecin-Deceuninck head sports director Christoph Roodhooft echoed Philipsen’s stance on the result, suggested that he was beaten by the better man in Girmay and hinted that the team had also held back slightly with the key gravel stage to come around Troyes on Sunday.
“Frustrating is not the correct word,” Roodhooft said. “He was beaten by [Biniam] Girmay… when you see the peloton in the end, a lot of good riders dropped out of nowhere. So it was a really hard, tough day and Jasper launched his sprint at I think a good moment and he’s beaten by Girmay.”
Philipsen’s Alpecin teammate, Mathieu van der Poel is, on paper, a rider that normally would be expected to flourish on the gravel stage. The current road world champion has had a relatively uneventful opening week to the race, but Roodhoft suggested he had held his prize asset back with the gravel in mind after he hadn’t been involved in Philipsen’s leadout.
He said: “Tomorrow is another day also for Mathieu and that’s why we wanted to keep him a bit where he wanted to be and he did not even do the leadout because he was not feeling really strong,” Roodhooft said
“After the race, it’s always easy to say how you should have done it in the end of course, but I think this team was strong enough today without Mathieu.”
