There might be five days left of the Tour de France, but for a sizable portion of the peloton, the race effectively came to an end today. Whereas usually there is the stage on the Champs-Élysées to look forward to on the final day, this year, stage 16 was the last realistic chance for a bunch sprint finish. Consequently, many sprinters will end the day with the forlorn knowledge that they have run out of chances to win a stage. Jasper Philipsen’s third victory today means that six of the eight sprint stages were shared between him and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché - Wanty), while Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlIula) and Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) can also leave the race happy with a single stage win each. Everyone else will go home winless.
Some will be less disappointed than others at this outcome. Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech), for instance, must be delighted at how he has ridden this Tour, even if he didn’t quite manage to win one. His string of three third-place finishes during the second week, when only Philipsen, Girmay and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) were quicker than him, marks his best form for years, returning to the level that saw him win two stages at both of his first Grand Tour appearances in 2019 and 2020.
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) can also be satisfied with his performances. Much was expected of the Belgian prodigy, and though the stage win that would have elevated him to a new level of fame never came, his consistency in making the top five on no fewer than five separate occasions is very impressive for a 22-year-old who had never before ridden at a Grand Tour. If he can make it to the finish, he’ll be well-prepared to take future Grand Tours by storm.
At the other side of his career, Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) proved he can still compete at the highest level, finishing third just two days after his 37th birthday, and following that up with another third-place finish today. While many top riders younger than him retire, the Norwegian can still compete 10 years after his first Tour stage wins.
There were also encouraging signs from some sprinters who have for a long time been struggling to rediscover their best form. Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) might have faded as the race went on, but his second place in Torino and third in Dijon were some of his quickest sprints in years, and among the closest he’s come to winning a Grand Tour stage since his last over five years ago. Similarly, Arnaud Démare (Arkéa - B&B Hotels) might have been relegated from third place on stage 12 for dangerous sprinting, but that sprint showed he still has the legs to compete with the best, in the context of a season in which he has been worryingly off the pace.
Less happy will be Sam Bennett (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale). The stage looked set for the Irishman to re-announce himself at the highest level during the run-in to the Tour, when he cleaned up at the Four Days of Dunkirk and carried that form into the Critérium du Dauphiné. But his fourth-place on stage 16 was the best result he managed to achieve at the Tour, and, frustratingly, seems to be riding into form just as he runs out of sprint opportunities.
Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) is another who ended the race strongly, with a second place finish in the final sprint behind Philipsen. But this was the only stage this year that he scaled the heights of the 2023 Tour, when he finished among the top three on three separate occasions.
Bryan Coquard’s long-held dream of winning a Tour de France stage was also denied for another year. The Cofidis rider was consistent as ever, picking up four top 10 places to keep him as high as third in the points classification, but couldn’t repeat the success of landing his first ever win at WorldTour level earlier this year at the Tour de Suisse to break his Grand Tour duck.
Other sprinters did not make it this far. It was clear from the very first day, when he toiled with Mark Cavendish to make the time cut, that Fabio Jakobsen (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL) was struggling for form, and the Dutchman continued to labour off the back of the peloton before finally calling it a day on stage 12. Still, he can take some positives in a couple of quick sprints during the first week to register a fifth and seventh-place finish. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was another big sprint name to withdraw early, his crash in the first week denying him the chance to extend his streak of winning stages in four consecutive Grand Tours.
While we can’t expect any of these aforementioned sprint specialists to be up there in any of the final week stages, there is one familiar face from the bunch finishes who might yet achieve a stage win — Wout van Aert. The Belgian has been sprinting at near his best, with two runner-up finishes that might have been victories had he not been boxed in, and now hopes to come into some climbing and time trialling form during the rest of the final week stages. You wouldn’t bet against him.
