Just seven points apart: Philipsen and Pedersen battle it out for the green jersey

​7: The battle for green space is coming to a head

With four days to go before Paris, just seven points separate the frontrunners, Mads Pedersen and Jasper Philipsen, in the battle for the Green Jersey.

The Lidl-Trek rider is just ahead of Philipsen, with 452 points to his 445. Since the Grand Départ in Barcelona, the two have been locked in a fierce battle at the very highest level.

Pedersen scored particularly well in the intermediate sprints, racking up 283 points there compared with Philipsen’s 220. The Belgian, on the other hand, regularly strikes back at the finish line and has so far secured 225 points there, compared with his rival’s 169.

What’s interesting is that, since Stage 13, Philipsen has scored more points than the Dane every single day. The battle for the green jersey is therefore wide open.

11: Philipsen joins the Tour’s elite

Jasper Philipsen celebrated his eleventh victory in the Tour de France on Stage 17. The Alpecin-Premier Tech sprinter took the win in Voiron, covering the final kilometre at an average speed of 50.7 km/h.

Since his first Tour victory in Carcassonne in 2022, the Belgian has established himself as one of the most successful sprinters of his generation. With eleven stage wins to his name, he is now level with André Greipel, Louison Bobet and Raffaele Di Paco on the all-time list.

At the same time, Philipsen has overtaken his compatriot Wout van Aert, who has ten Tour stage wins to his name. Among Belgian riders, he now ranks fifth on the all-time list behind Jean Aerts (12), Philippe Thys (13), Freddy Maertens (15) and, of course, Eddy Merckx with his 34 victories.

5: Winning as a habit

With his victory in Voiron, Philipsen has now won at least one stage in each of his five consecutive Tour de France appearances. A remarkable run of form for the Belgian.

His successes in Carcassonne and Paris in 2022 were followed by four stage wins in 2023 and a further three in 2024. Last year, he won the opening stage in Lille and wore the Yellow Jersey for the first time.

The only thing more impressive at the moment is Tadej Pogacar’s run of form. The Slovenian has won at least two stages in every edition of the Tour since 2020.

6: Alpecin-Premier Tech delivers every year

Thanks to the victories of Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel, Alpecin-Premier Tech continues his extraordinary run of success.

Since making its Tour debut in 2021, the team has won at least two stages in each of its six appearances. It has now racked up a total of 16 Tour stage wins.

The run of victories began with Mathieu van der Poel’s triumph on the Mûr-de-Bretagne in 2021. Just one day later, Tim Merlier won in Pontivy. Since then, Philipsen in particular has been racking up regular victories, whilst last year Van der Poel, Philipsen and Kaden Groves continued the winning streak.

6: Belgium is racking up wins just like in the old days

Belgium is enjoying one of its most successful Tour de France campaigns in recent decades. Since the start in Barcelona, riders from this cycling nation have already claimed six stage victories.

Tim Merlier won stages 7, 8 and 12, whilst Remco Evenepoel won stages 15 and 16. Now Philipsen’s victory in Voiron has been added to the tally.

This marks the 39th time in the Tour’s history that Belgium has reached the milestone of six stage wins in a single tour. A seventh victory would be particularly remarkable: the last time this happened was in 1984.

3: Belgian hat-trick on the podium

The last three stages were all dominated by Belgian riders. Remco Evenepoel’s victories on the Plateau de Solaison and in Thonon-les-Bains were followed by Jasper Philipsen’s win in Voiron.

This means Belgium has achieved a rare hat-trick with two different riders. The last time a country won three Tour stages in a row was in 2021, when the Slovenians Tadej Pogacar and Matej Mohorič achieved this feat.

As for Belgium itself, you actually have to go back as far as 1981. Back then, Daniel Willems, Freddy Maertens and Eddy Planckaert won several stages in a row for their country.

5: Kooij’s remarkable Tour debut

Olav Kooij has been performing remarkably consistently in his first Tour de France. With his third place in Voiron, the Decathlon CMA CGM rider has now stood on the stage podium for the fifth time.

Following his victory on the fifth stage to Pau, the Dutchman also finished second twice, in Nevers and Chalon-sur-Saône, and third in Bergerac and now in Voiron.

Only Tadej Pogacar has more podium finishes in this Tour. The overall leader has seven top-three finishes to his name so far.

3: Pedersen is rewarded for his fighting spirit

Mads Pedersen was remarkably active throughout the stage and was rewarded for this by being named the most combative rider of the day.

This is already the third honour of this kind for the Lidl-Trek rider at the Tour de France. He was previously honoured after a stage of the 2022 Tour and on the 17th stage of the 2024 Tour.

This means the Dane is now just one award short of Ben Healy. However, Richard Carapaz remains the frontrunner among this year’s Tour participants, with a total of five awards for the most combative rider.