Philipsen shines again as Vingegaard retains overall lead from Pogacar in Tour de France

Alpecin rider secures victory on stage 11 after great final burst

Alpecin–Deceuninck's Jasper Philipsen celebrates after winning stage 11 of the Tour de France. Reuters

Belgian Jasper Philipsen sprinted to his fourth stage win on this year's Tour de France with a powerful last burst on stage 11 as defending champion Jonas Vingegaard retained the overall leader's yellow jersey.

The Alpecin sprinter edged Dutch rider Dylan Groenewegen to the line on Wednesday with Phil Bauhaus in third. There was no change in the overall standings between race favourites Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates.

"It's an incredible Tour so far," said Philipsen. "I can't realise how good it's all going, I'm just super proud, really happy with my shape. To get through the final without problems is also a big challenge and we managed to do it already four times in a row so I'm super happy.

"I had to find my wheel a little but, also finding the space it's technical and a bit dangerous for crashing. I'm happy I can find a good wheel of Groenewegen and he opened up early so I could go over.

"There are maybe more sprint opportunities, but also there will be guys going for the break, but I'm already so happy to take four and hopefully looking towards Paris I can keep this jersey. I think I made a good gap now [in the points classification] which gives me comfort going into the Alps."

Philipsen has dominated the bunch sprints on the 2023 Tour although two of his three previous triumphs were secured with some tricky manoeuvres that had to be validated by the race commissaire.

In the final sprint during his first win at Bayonne he appeared to swerve in front of Wout Van Aert. He then won out after a series of falls at the Nogaro motorbike circuit.

On the banks of the Garonne at Bordeaux for his third stage win he also appeared to cut off the path for Biniam Girmay, who waved his arms in anger before Philipsen was again cleared.

Philipsen can now bid to become the first rider to win five stages in a single edition of the Tour since German Marcel Kittel in 2017.

He strengthened his grip on the green jersey for the points classification, taking his tally to 323 and widen the gap with second-placed Bryan Coquard to a massive 145 points.

Race leader Vingegaard and second-placed Pogacar remain separated by just 17 seconds, with Australian rider Jai Hindley in third at two minutes and 40 seconds.

Pogacar clawed back a few seconds for a second time on stage nine after Vingegaard dropped his rival to gain 53 seconds on him in Laruns on stage five.

Thursday's 12th stage is a 169km roller-coaster between Roanne and Belleville en Beaujolais.