Tour de France stage 10 winner Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) finally claimed a hard-sought victory on Tuesday, making for a vast improvement in personal morale.
His victory came on an unusual stage that looked more like a Champs Élysées parade stage than a mid-race day for the sprinters. There was no breakaway besides a brief foray by Kobe Goossens (Intermarché-Wanty) and Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto Dstny) before the intermediate sprint, and the peloton spent the day riding tempo with no attacks to speak of.
Before the finale when things speeded up, Philipsen said he was happy to be "with friends in the bunch, talking and joking a little bit. They aren't the toughest days.
"The sprint stages can be really easy with nobody in the breaks, then days like tomorrow [stage 11, with 4,200 metres of climbing - Ed.] are even harder than before. They're full gas from the start.
"So it's either full gas in the stages or no pressure on the pedal at all. Intensity-wise [in the Tour], it's really up and down this year."
Several of the Tour de France's six flat stages so far have seen only the shortest of breakaways - like on Tuesday, when the only attempt to go clear lasted around 10 kilometres mid-race before it disintegrated - and none of them have worked out. The much-feared crosswinds on stage 10, so much a feature of when the Tour reached Saint-Amand Montrond 11 years ago, were barely a factor this year, and certainly failed to create any echelons like in 2013.
Romain Bardet's dramatic two-up move with DSM-Firmenich-PostNL teammate Frank van den Broek on the much hillier stage 1, did manage to fend off a much-reduced lead peloton of some 50 riders. Other scenarios like the off-road trek around Troyes on stage 9 or the multiple ascent over San Luca in Bologna on stage 2 have also worked out for the breaks. But when it comes to classic bunch sprints, the breakaways in this year's Tour have barely existed.
After taking his seventh Tour de France stage, Philipsen pointed out that the absence of strong breakaways had multiple consequences, ones that stretched beyond the flat stages into the much hillier ones - like stage 11 on Wednesday.
But on days when there were no climbs in sight, at times, fans risked dropping off on the sofa out of the pure tedium.
"I think for the GC teams the flat stages are quite easy as there is no break," the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider told reporters, "but it also maybe means that all teams have another goal, not just getting into breaks, they also want to focus on GC or other goals."
He also suggested that for fans, the near-total dearth of breakaways on flat stages so far in the Tour meant they were something of a snooze-fest, at least until the closing kilometres and the final bunch sprint battles.
"It's maybe not the coolest thing to watch the whole of the sprint stages, now. Maybe it's good you sleep on the sofa until the bunch sprints arrive."
When the crunch moments finally arrived for Philipsen and the other sprinters, the Alpecin-Deceuninck fast man had fulsome praise for his leadout train, spearheaded by no less a figure than World Champion Mathieu van der Poel. His latest victory was also a major confidence boost for himself after a tough first week with several near-misses and one relegation because of an irregular sprint manoeuvre.
"I'd give the lead-out a 10 out of 10, they did exactly what we wanted and we could play to our strengths," Philipsen said. "We did exactly what we wanted."
"To have the World Champion leading you out is something very special, it makes me very proud. I'm so glad that Mathieu is there, and we're taking the risks and going for the wins, so all credit to him."
"It's never easy to win, we saw that last week, we had a shit week that didn't work out completely. But it was much better today."
Philipsen confirmed that the very technical closing segment of the course, with a pronounced chicane in the middle of the last kilometre, had been nothing but beneficial for Alpecin-Deceuninck. That was particularly the case for a rider like Van der Poel, equally at home on the obstacle-ridden cyclocross circuits - where he is a multiple World Champion - as he is on challenging city-centre finales like Saint-Amand-Montrond.
"Mathieu has super good bike handling skills, everybody knows that, so a technical final is always an advantage for us," Philipsen confirmed. "That was how we wanted to do the sprint, and I'm happy it just worked out."
After four stage victories and a green jersey win to boot in the 2023 Tour, Philipsen admitted that even if he never said that he wanted to repeat that, the raised expectations and pressure could not be completely ignored. However, with one win now in the bag, things were no longer nearly as stressful as they had been.
"You know it's going to be tough to try and do the same, it puts pressure on myself to try and do that. But it's never easy. Wins don't just happen or come out of nowhere."
"So I'm just happy we have the win now and the pressure is off. And we can continue this Tour on a real high note."
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Tour de France - including breaking news and analysis reported by our journalists on the ground from every stage of the race as it happens and more. Find out more.
