PA Media/dpa
London
Jasper Philipsen won stage 16 of the Tour de France in Nimes as Mark Cavendish was unable to contest the final sprint stage of his Tour career.
Philipsen dominated a reduced sprint to beat Phil Bauhaus at the end of the 188.6-kilometre stage from Gruissan, taking his third win of this Tour after a late crash left Biniam Girmay on the deck to reopen the battle for the points classification.
Cavendish had too much ground to make up after the peloton split and rolled in 17th, meaning his record-breaking 35th Tour stage victory in Saint-Vulbas in the opening week stands to be his last.
The sprint finish meant no change at the top of the general classification, in which Tadej Pogacar leads defending champion Jonas Vingegaard by a little over three minutes before the race returns to the Alps.
Philipsen’s ninth career Tour stage win came with a textbook leadout from world champion Mathieu van der Poel and his Alpecin-Deceuninck team, as the Belgian closed the gap behind Girmay to just 32 points in the fight for green jersey.
"I’m really happy, definitely 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 haven’t seen (the crash), we were always together with our team trying to position ourselves and focused on our lead-out so I didn’t see the crash, but I hope everybody was okay,” he added.
After hitting the deck inside the last two kilometres, Girmay rolled over the line being nursed by his Intermarche-Wanty team-mates, with obvious cuts to his arm and elbow.
Although his lead in the points classification has shrunk massively, the Eritrean remains the favourite given the lumpier territory that the remaining intermediate sprints will be fought over - providing he avoids any lasting damage.
Philipsen said: "Everything is possible but it’s really hard because (Girmay) is climbing well. I just hope he’s okay after the crash because he doesn’t deserve to lose it like this.” Nimes was the scene for Cavendish’s fourth stage win back in 2008 but there would be no repeat in the last sprint stage of his final Tour.
"We were pretty well positioned coming into the final stretch,” Cavendish said.
"But with some of those roundabouts, if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time you lose momentum and that’s it, some guys get through and some don’t.”
Cavendish will do his best to enjoy his last five days as a rider on the Tour, even if the Alpine climbs that stand between him and Nice will make that easier said than done.
"We came here, we did what we set out to achieve here at this Tour de France and we did it early on,” he said.
"We’re happy. We said everything we achieved on top of the fifth stage would just 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 get to Nice.”
Gils quits Tour over Covid
Belgian rider Maxim Van Gils has become the fourth rider to leave the Tour de France after contracting the coronavirus.
Van Gils’ Lotto-Dstny team said on Tuesday that he has tested positive and showed mild symptoms on the rest day Monday.
Denmark’s Michael Mørkøv, Juan Ayuso of Spain and Britain’s Thomas Pidcock had previously left the Tour due to Covid-19.
Former Tour winner Geraint Thomas has also tested positive but is continuing the race which ends on Sunday.