Jasper Philipsen won the opening stage of the BinckBank Tour on Tuesday. The stage in the Dutch-Belgian stage race was overshadowed in the final phase by a massive crash.
Jasper Philipsen won the opening stage of the BinckBank Tour on Tuesday. The stage in the Dutch-Belgian stage race was overshadowed in the final phase by a massive crash.
At 4 kilometers from the finish, a massive crash occurred, involving about half the peloton. The Belgian riders Oliver Naesen and Stijn Steels are the main victims.
Naesen had to be pushed to the finish by other riders with a bruised knee. The AG2R rider could no longer bend his leg. Steels (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) grabbed his wrist with a painful face after the fall.
A small group of riders remained at the front, of which the Belgian Philipsen was the fastest in the sprint. The UAE Emirates rider was ahead of the Dane Mads Pedersen and the German Pascal Ackermann.
Danny van Poppel was the best Dutchman in fourth place, Nils Eekhoff was seventh and Dutch champion Mathieu van der Poel finished ninth.
Philipsen also captured the leader’s jersey. Mike Teunissen (third) and Van der Poel (fifth) took bonus seconds along the way and are therefore high in the rankings.
For app users: tap the tweet for a video of the mass crash.
BinckBank Tour finishes Saturday in Geraardsbergen
Early on in the 132 kilometer stage from Blankeberge to Ardooie, the Belgians Thimo Willems and Ludovic Robeet attacked. The peloton never gave the duo much space.
After the two escapees were caught, Jumbo-Visma rider Amund Grondahl Jansen and Adrien Petit of Total Direct Energie went on the attack. The Norwegian and the Frenchman were given a maximum lead of fifteen seconds in the last three local rounds in Ardooie.
Shortly after they too were caught, the massive crash started. 22-year-old Philipsen was one of the riders who faced the chaos and sprinted to his second victory of the season.
The BinckBank Tour continues on Wednesday with a time trial in Vlissingen. The third and fourth stage will also end in the Netherlands, after which the final stage will finish on Saturday at the Muur van Geraardsbergen in Belgium.
