Tour de France: Jaspen Philipsen lets his joy burst out believing he has won in Calais... when Wout Van Aert had already won the stage

Special envoy to Calais

To discover

• The general classification of the Tour de France

• Tour de France 2022: discover the map and the route of the next edition

This is the Belgian story of this start of the Tour de France.

In Calais, Jasper Philipsen let his joy burst by winning the massive sprint of the peloton on the fourth day of racing.

Showing his muscles and raising his fists to the sky, the Belgian from the Alpecin-Deceuninck team believed for a moment that he had signed his first victory on the Grande Boucle.

Except that eight seconds before him, Wout Van Aert won brilliantly after a masterful solo final...

Christophe Laporte, beaten on the wire for the sprint of the peloton and teammate of the winner of the day, very quickly brought back to reality this collector of places of honor on the Grande Boucle (4 times in his career), often placed but never winner .

"

", explained the Belgian, who fell violently from his cloud and who admitted n not to have seen Van Aert on the horizon once the finish line had been crossed.