Tour de France 2023: Jasper Philipsen storms to first sprint stage win as Wout Van Aert edged out again

A tense and highly contested sprint finish in Bayonne was won by Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) ahead of Germany’s Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) and Australia’s Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dstny). But it seemed like an eternity for the result to be confirmed after the race jury studied replays to decide whether Philipsen had veered off his line and boxed out his compatriot Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) on the curved home straight in Stage 3.

Ad Philipsen was taken out of the winner’s enclosure and into the jury headquarters for a few minutes – only to emerge with a smile on his face signalling the confirmation of the third Tour stage win of the 25-year-old's career. Tour de France'There are no presents' — Philipsen reacts to Stage 3 victoryAN HOUR AGO The debate surrounded an apparent deviation on the home straight, which caused Van Aert to ease up by the barriers and drop to fifth place behind Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep).

Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) missed out on an opportunity to take a record 35th stage win – but the veteran British sprinter showed encouraging signs in his quest for making history in his final Tour by taking a solid sixth place ahead of Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgroge), Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis). Britain’s Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) finished safely in the peloton to retain the yellow jersey for a third day, American Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) starred from the breakaway to retain the polka dot jersey, while France’s Victor Lafay (Cofidis) enjoyed a little cameo off the front to pick up enough points in the intermediate sprint to retain the green jersey.