Tour de France: Fall drama on the tour – Bauhaus sprints in third place

Phil Bauhaus sniffed hard after the fall chaos at the Tour de France. One day before his birthday, the 30-year-old was happy about his third place and was relieved to survive the chaotic third stage safely. “Podium on the tour is a great result for me,” said Bauhaus, who drove out a top three result for the fifth time when he took part in the tour.

However, he has to wait for the first great success. “I hope that I can repeat the next stages,” he added. This time he couldn’t avoid the Belgian stage winner Tim Merlier and the Italian Jonathan Milan in the final.

The cycling fans experienced a hectic and accompanied stage from Valenciennes to Dunkirk. The sprint king Jasper Philipsen had to leave the 112nd edition of the three-week tour as a result of an unfortunate fall. After the incident, Philipsen came to the hospital about 60 kilometers before the finish.

Philipsen must be operated on

After a first diagnosis, Philipsen suffered a shifted fracture of the keybone and at least one rib fracture. He definitely has to be operated on. This is to be carried out as soon as possible in the Hospital in the Belgian Herental, as his team Alpecin-Deceuninck announced.

“I only saw him lying on the street and I saw it relatively quickly that he grabbed his shoulder,” said Bauhaus, who had repeatedly just failed on a stage victory on the tour in recent years. He did not see the fall itself.

Several falls in violent wind

But that’s not all. There were further violent falls in the final, and double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel and Red Bull sprinter Jordi Meeus were torn to the ground. According to the Red Bull sports director Rolf Aldag, the conditions with a strong headwind from the north were “not feasible that everyone arrives”. In addition, there is the high willingness to take risks, especially in the first week, “because everyone thinks they can write cycling history”.

The worst caught Philipsen. His Alpecin team boss Philip Roodhooft was visibly affected after the dramatic from his driver. “Of course this ensures emotions. Today’s result is also irrelevant,” he said, and has not yet been able to give any details about the extent of the injuries. “Jasper is down,” he said in English. At that time, Philipsen was already in the hospital.

Rempler puts Philipsen down

The Belgian had fallen after a ripple shortly before the intermediate sprint and had to give up the race. He fell on his right shoulder, his entire jersey was torn – numerous abrasions were seen. He was then treated by the tour doctor for minutes.

The fall of the Belgian Laurenz Rex had triggered the team around the German road bike master Georg Zimmermann. Rex brought the Cofidis driver Bryan Coquard out of balance, the Frenchman finally collided with Philipsen, who could no longer avoid. Team boss Roodhooft did not want to make any blame: “At that time it is not really relevant to analyze that. Everyone saw the pictures,” he added.

Tour continues without the best sprinter of her last years

The tour is losing its best sprinter in recent years. In 2024 the 27-year-old had won four stages and the green jersey in 2023. In Lille he had gained superior to the start, a day later his teammate Mathieu van der Poel took over the yellow jersey with the victory in Boulogne-sur-Mer.

The cross world champion was able to defend this successfully, which, given the failure of team-mate Philipsen, is only a weak consolation: “This is not our best day. We wanted to win stages with him here and go to the green jersey.” The Dutch is located in the overall ranking four seconds ahead of defending champion Tadej Pogacar and six seconds before the Danes Jonas Vingegaard.

On the fourth day of the tour on Tuesday, a demanding final is waiting for the cycling professionals – Pogacar and Vingegaard could also be distinguished there again. On the last 50 kilometers from Amiens to Rouen, two climbs of the third and fourth category are waiting. Five kilometers before the finish, the dreaded ramp from Saint-Hilaire awaits up to 16 percent climb.