Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) says he has the form to go for a maiden Tour de France stage win in a bunch sprint this Sunday, but ensuring it actually happens in a race with very few opportunities for the fastmen is no easy matter.
The 24-year-old cites Friday's stage to Saint Etienne as a case in point where a lack of collaboration left the few sprinters teams still present in the front group unable to pull back the break. Finally, Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) won the move.
But with three top five places in a race where the last full bunch sprint was back in Denmark, as well as eighth on the cobbles of stage 5, Philipsen says he's determined to make his mark.
"My form is still good, I'm still healthy so I'm looking forward to Sunday," Philipsen told a small group of reporters at Saturday's start.
"I told the team that we could try for something on Friday, too, but not all the [sprinters] teams had the same opinion and that was a bit shit."
"It was a strong group in front, so I knew it was going to be hard, but think for sure it was possible if sprinters teams had committed. But it didn't work out."
Philipsen's frustration is all the stronger given there are, as he said, "just three opportunities left," on stage 15, stage 19 and on stage 21 in Paris.
"If I could choose one, it'd be the Champs Elysées," Philipsen said. "But waiting to win until that last day would make for even more stress."
Apart from his encouraging results in the Tour, Philipsen has had a consistently good year in the sprints as well. He's won multiple stages in the first race of his season, the UAE Tour as well as stages in the Tour of Turkey and Tour of Belgium in June.
"I'm on a good level but there's not been many chances for us, and things haven't worked out in our favour," said Philipsen, who has three stage wins at Grand Tour level in the Vuelta a España but none yet in the Tour de France. "Hopefully that'll change in the last week."
