Jasper Philipsen took a dominant victory in a reduced bunch sprint at the end of the Tour de France's Alpine 17th stage on Wednesday to end a "horrible" run of near misses.
Set up by a strong lead-out from his former world champion teammate Mathieu van der Poel, Philipsen finished several bike lengths ahead of Mauro Schmid and Olav Kooij, who had each already won a stage at the Tour.
It was an 11th Tour stage victory overall for the 28-year-old Belgian, who won the sprinters' green points jersey in 2023.
It meant that he has won at least one stage in each of the last five editions of the Tour.
He had come close on several other sprint stages this year, finishing five times in the top five already.
And he admitted that it had been frustrating.
"I was prepared very, very well, I was in the shape of my life," said Philipsen.
"The first stage (of the race) was horrible, I couldn't find myself, I couldn't find the form I was hoping for.
"After 17 stages... we won for the team."
In several of those near misses, Van der Poel had tried to lead him out but often a fraction too early, with Philipsen being caught and passed before the finish – usually by compatriot Tim Merlier.
But Merlier had dropped out of the Tour a few days earlier, unable to keep up on a tough mountain stage, and this time, Philipsen proved the quickest at the end of the 174.7km stage from Chambery to Voiron.
"I think it was a very hard day all day and I just tried to be in the front, (to) be in each important group and then everything came together," said Van der Poel.
"And then Edward (Planckaert) was in the front group, so in the end you always had somebody in one of the groups and that was what made the victory a bit easier to achieve."
FRANTIC, HECTIC DAY
The 50 points Philipsen earned for winning the stage also moved him to within just seven points of another former world champion, Dane Mads Pedersen in the green jersey competition.
Race leader and defending champion Tadej Pogacar came home safely in the main peloton just under nine minutes later.
But there was one concern for Pogacar, whose UAE Emirates-XRG teammate Adam Yates – a crucial mountain lieutenant – struggled throughout the stage after suffering from a stomach problem the previous night.
He eventually came home more than 26 minutes after Philipsen.
It was a day of frantic, hectic bike racing.
It took more than 100km for a breakaway to stick and eventually a six-man group opened up a lead at the head of the race.
Among them was Pedersen, who was eying maximum points at the intermediate sprint 27km from the finish.
He duly won that but almost immediately, Jasper Styuven attacked and went clear of his breakaway companions.
Behind them, a larger group including Philipsen and Kooij was gaining steadily and they soon caught the other five riders.
Stuyven battled on gamely but he was reeled in less than 4km from the line.
From then on, Van der Poel worked tirelessly to ensure that no one could clip off the front, and then still had the energy to tee up his Alpecin Premier Tech teammate for the win.
STAGE 17 RESULTS
1. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Premier Tech) – 3h 41m 13s
2. Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco AlUla) – same time
3. Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) – same time
4. Lewis Askey (NSN Cycling Team) – same time
5. Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) – same time
6. Clément Russo (Groupama–FDJ United) – same time
7. Huub Artz (Lotto Intermarché) – same time
8. Mads Pedersen (Lidl–Trek) – same time
9. Michael Matthews (Team Jayco AlUla) – same time
10. Aaron Gate (XDS Astana Team) – same time