Jasper Philipsen came off Mathieu van der Poel’s wheel to launch an unanswerable sprint to win stage 17 of the Tour de France in Voiron.
The day had been one of the most chaotic of this year’s Tour with attacks, counter-attacks and splits throughout the day.
But eventually a reduced front group containing several sprinters including Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and Aaron Gates (Astana-XDS) contested the victory.
Speaking after the finish Philipsen said: “It has been such a rollercoaster of emotions at this Tour de France, having to wait until stage 17. I prepared very, very well I was in the shape of my life I think but the first 12 stages were just horrible I couldn’t find the feeling I was hoping for.
“It’s really one for the team that keep on believing in me. I want to thank everybody because I’ve been like an angry bird at the [dinner] table, I was just disappointed in myself and angry that I couldn’t take a stage win.”
He added: “I doubted myself. I did everything I could before this Tour, I did amazing preparation with the team, but I just was not myself. Was it because of the heat, because it was really horrible? Or was it something else? I don’t know.
“Mentally it was really tough with all the sh*t you get, read my Instagram. I just tried to be with my team-mates in our own bubble and just working towards the next goals, but it’s always a rollercoaster of emotions at the Tour de France in July.”
In a stage marked by chaos, the Alpecin-Premier Tech sprinter hadn’t always been in the front of the race and had to dig deep to make it back to the main break before the finish.
He said: “This victory cost me a few years of my life I was fighting somewhere in the middle between groups, I thought the stage was lost. In the end they were super strong and delivered me to the finish line.”
Philipsen’s victory injected new vigour into the competition for the Tour’s green jersey because the leader of that competition Mads Pedersen was only able to place eighth.
The Belgian is now just seven points between Pedersen after claiming 50 for the win. He said: “The next stages are very, very tough but I’ll keep fighting until Paris.”
The day had been marked by chaos that saw the break take 75km to form. One of the major animators of that was Pedersen who seemed to want to be in every group that tried to go clear. He’d be awarded the most combative rider prize at the end of the day.
He was rewarded for those efforts by taking maximum 25 points at the intermediate sprint, which was placed 147km into the 175km stage.
Immediately afterwards, Stuyven attacked attempting to complete the stage’s final 25km alone.
With 16km to go he had built a lead of 45 seconds. The Belgian, who hasn’t won a race since he was victorious in Milan-San Remo in 2021, was riding strongly but behind Pederson’s group was caught by the large breakaway group that contained several sprinters including Philipsen, Pedersen and Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) all eager to contest the win.
With more than 40 riders bearing down on him his gap began to erode. By 10km to go it had fallen to 31 seconds.
Alpecin-Premier Tech and Jayco-AlUla were contributing heavily to the chase and by 5km to go Stuyven’s advantage had dropped to 20 seconds.
With 3.5km to race the Belgian powerhouse was finally caught, prompting a flurry of counter-attacks but they were all shut down and the group contested the win.
Stage 17 was not one for the GC men, but Adam Yates (UAE Emirates-XRG) team-mate of yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogačar raising questions about whether the Tour leader might be at risk of getting sick.
Results
Tour de France 2026, stage 17: Chambery > Voiron (175km)
1. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) in 03:41:13
2. Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco-AlUla)
3. OlavKooij (Decathlon CMA CGM)
4. Lewis Askey (NSN Pro Cycling)
5. Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling)
6. Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ United)
7. Huub Artz (Lotto-Intermarché)
8. MadsPedersen (Lidl-Trek)
9. Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-AlUla)
10. AaronGate (XDS Astana) all at same time
Tour de France 2026 general classification after stage 17
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 60:04:17
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Redu Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +4:32
3. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +6:51
4. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, +7:11
5. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +9:22
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek,+10:14
7. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain-Victorious, +12:50
8. Tom Pidcock (Gbr), Pinarello Q36.5, +12:58
9. Jordan Jegat (Fra) ToralEnergies, +14:04
10. Yannis Voisard (Sui) Tudor Pro Cycling, +24:18