Tour de France: Jasper Philipsen pips Wout van Aert to Stage 15 win in thrilling sprint finish on day of drama

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Fenix) sprinted to victory on Stage 15 of the Tour de France, finishing just ahead of Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) in Carcassonne. Mads Pedersen (Trek–Segafredo) was also involved in the huge run to the line and made up the podium in third. The Danish rider had the best lead-out, and was in front almost to the line.

He looked to be about to double his stage wins for the weekend, before being pipped by the onrushing Belgians to his right and left. Ad/> Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), the sole survivor from a second two-man break of the day, rode alone from 5km, but was heartbreakingly reeled with 500m to go as one man proved no match for many. On one of the few true days for the sprinters at this year's Tour de France, they were not going to turn down the chance of taking a rare victory.

Tour de FranceKruijswijk out of Tour with horror injury, Vingegaard crashes on nightmare day for Jumbo2 HOURS AGO “I know what losing is like in the Tour de France," said a visibly emotional Philipsen afterwards. «It worked out today and it’s incredible…” “It’s been a massive search for this victory,» he went on. «We worked really hard for it and I’m super proud we could finish it off.

Everybody still believed it was possible. I knew I had good legs. We just had to wait for the right opportunity and the right moment.” It was a day of drama as Van Aert's team-mate Steven Kruijswijk suffered a horror crash and yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard — also with Jumbo-Visma — hit the deck too.

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