2024-03-05 15:09:53
Unchallenged first win of the season for the Belgian
By Sebastian Lindner
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin – Deceuninck) extends the Sprinter series in Follonica | Photo: Cor Vos
03/05/2024 | (rsn) – Last year he was second behind Fabio Jakobsen at the same place, but now Follonica formed the backdrop for Jasper Philipsen’s (Alpecin – Deceuninck) first win of the season. The Belgian clearly won the 2nd stage of Tirreno-Adriatico (2.UWT), which started in Camaiore as in 2023, after 198 kilometers. Tim Merlier (Soudal – Quick Step) came second ahead of Biniam Girmay (Intermarché – Wanty) and Axel Zingle (Cofidis).
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The 90-degree curve 300 meters before the finish line was crucial for the outcome of the mass sprint. Merlier was the first to cross the finish line alongside Alexander Kristoff, who started the sprint for Sören Waerenskjold (both Uno-X Mobility). While he cut off the two Norwegians on the left side of the road, he lacked the power for the extremely long sprint. Philipsen, who was sitting on Merlier’s rear wheel, pulled past into the wind when his compatriot realized that he was still too far away and slowed down.
Without going all the way to the finish line, Philipsen was able to win safely, Merlier, who was just coasting, still came in second because Girmay and Zingle were way too far behind due to a bad position in the last corner.
“Last year it was the second opportunity where we managed to win. That’s why I’m happy that it worked right from the start,” said Philipsen, happy about his debut this year and added that he had to struggle with technical problems in the last few kilometers: “I had a bit of trouble with my gears, But luckily I was able to find the right gear and start the sprint at the right time.”
Like Merlier, he spoke of a hectic finale. “It was crazy in the field. We had a good position, before the last corner I was on the inside and lost a lot of speed. We were just ahead too early. “But I can be happy with my form and I’m already looking forward to tomorrow,” explained the runner-up. The German sprinters around Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) played no role in the final and missed the top 10, even though their team had worked hard in the last few kilometers.
There were no changes in the overall ranking. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) is also in the overall leader’s blue jersey on stage 3, the first small mountain finish of the tour. He also wears the jersey of the top scorer, which Philipsen will take on as his representative. The first mountain jersey of the tour goes to Davide Bais (Polti – Kometa), who was able to win the only mountain classification of the day from a breakaway group.
This is how the 2nd stage from Tirreno-Adriatico went
The second day’s leg of the long-distance journey across the two seas took us 198 kilometers from Camaiore to Follonica, heading to the city of sprinters. Because a stage at Tirreno-Adriatico ended three times in Follonica and three times with a mass sprint. The profile of the day was three climbs, one of which was right after the start, but they shouldn’t pose any major danger to the fast men.
On the first climb of the day, right from the start, I dropped a quartet that dominated most of the day. The Swiss Jan Stöckli was in good company with the three Italians Lorenzo Quartucci (both Corratec – Vini Fantini), Filippo Magli (VF Group – Bardiani CSF Faizane) and the long-time outlier Bais.
The group rode for just over five minutes maximum. And everyone worked well together until the mountain classification in Castellina Marittima, after about 95 kilometers. There Bais attacked and built up a small lead up to the scoring line, which secured him the maximum five points.
The 25-year-old was then caught again and the four breakaways continued towards the finish together, although not with full intensity. Behind them in the peloton, Alpecin-Deceuninck organized the follow-up work for Philipsen, followed by UAE. After the mountain, the gap remained at around one minute for a long time.
The next time it went uphill – at the intermediate sprint in Canneto – the lead had almost doubled again. One of the reasons for this was Stöckli’s 500-meter sprint uphill. He used the gap between himself and his colleagues to try it on his own.
While the Swiss had subsequently moved ahead of his pursuers for a minute and a half with 50 kilometers to go, his former passengers were caught up shortly afterwards after Soudal – Quick-Step also joined in the follow-up work. Less than 15 kilometers later, Stöckli was the last breakaway.
Before the absolute finale, the riders crossed the finish line in Follonica for the first time 18 kilometers from the end. There were several small and minor falls in the urban area with some traffic islands and other obstacles. Among others, Chris Froome (Israel – Premier Tech) and Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) were hit. The four-time tour winner went down after a fall, while the sprinter had a rear wheel defect. But neither came back to the field.
On the home straight, Philipsen was clearly in the lead after he jumped past Merlier’s rear wheel, who was in the wind way too early and didn’t even have to pull through to the line. Merlier also only coasted, but saved himself to second place.
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