Jasper Philipsen sprints to victory at Tour de France as Adam Yates retains yellow jersey

Belgian sprinter Jasper Philipsen outpaced and outmuscled the other fast men to take the high-speed bunch finish at the end of Stage 3 of the Tour de France on Monday.

Philipsen – led out expertly by his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Mathieu van der Poel – held off German Phil Bauhaus, with Australian Caleb Ewan third as the race crossed into France after two days in the Spanish Basque Country.

Adam Yates, of UAE Team Emirates, retains the overall lead as all the chief contenders finished together after a 182km run from northern Spain to Bayonne.

The British rider leads teammate Tadej Pogacar and his brother Simon by six seconds.

During a hectic finish on Monday, Wout Van Aert – who finished second Stage 2 – attempted to pass Philipsen on the inside of the final bend but ran out of room because of the barriers and was forced to slow up.

The race commissaries reviewed video footage of the incident before confirming Philipsen's victory. It was his third career win on the Tour and his seventh victory of the season.

“It's not easy to stay on Mathieu's wheel,” said Philipsen, who has now won the last three bunch sprints on the Tour after Carcassonne and the Champs Elysees last year.

⏪ Relive a hectic final KM for the first sprint stage of the #TDF2023. Jasper Philipsen of @AlpecinDCK is triumphant. ⏪ Revivez le dernier km du premier sprint de ce #TDF2023, avec Jasper Philipsen, de la @AlpecinDCK qui lève les bras pic.twitter.com/vr9nCBIEeQ

“Everything went according to plan, he's the perfect lead-out rider. When he goes it's hard to go past him. We've been working hard and I'm really happy it has worked as early in the Tour as today.

Philipsen said about his arduous wait for the jury to make their decision: “It was a bit in