Complete failure of the sprinter teams on the 18th stage of the Tour de France: surprise winner Kasper Asgreen from the Soudal-Quick Step team benefited from the disagreement between the other teams on Thursday (07/20/2023).
The fact that the sprinter teams had been waiting for this stage and didn’t want to be surprised was shown by the tactics of keeping the escapees under control at all times. For a long time, Jonas Abrahamsen, Pascal Eenkhoorn, Victor Campenaerts and Asgreen held a lead of around a minute. That one of this quartet could have won the stage actually seemed impossible – but in the last few kilometers the sprinter teams gambled completely.
In the end, the quartet’s lead was reduced to five seconds. But because all of the competitors of top sprinter Jasper Philipsen left the tracking work to his team Alpecin-Deceuninck, it was enough for the escapees in the end.
Only in the sprint classification: Philipsen strong
Philpsen had already briefly flexed his muscles in the sprint classification at kilometer 138: As the first after the breakaway quartet, the clearly fastest man in the field this year secured another 11 points in the fight for the green jersey, which of course is no longer a fight: Philipsen led the points classification before the start of this stage with 323 points ahead of Mats Pedersen with 186 and Bryan Coquard (178) – the leading Belgian only has to hold out until Paris .
Geschke gives up exhausted
To hold out until Paris – that was of course also Simon Geschke’s goal. But 75 kilometers from the finish, the German faction had another member less on the tour. After sprinter Phil Bauhaus gave up the day before, Geschke also had to park his bike.
The day after his bad slump on the queen stage with the Col de la Loze at 2304 meters, the 37-year-old initially started the 18th section, but got off his bike 14 kilometers after a mini climb to the 360-meter hill Cote de Boissieu (2.4 kilometers with a gradient of 4.7 percent).
First exit after eleven participations
For the badly injured Geschke it is the first exit in his eleventh tour participation. In the previous year, the climbing specialist had worn the mountain jersey for nine days.
“Let’s see how it goes today. I’m glad I’m still in it”, the Berliner had said before the start on ARD. His goal for the 184.9 mostly flat kilometers to Bourg-en-Bresse: “Get through.“But it wasn’t enough.