Tour de France – Three things that stood out: Phil Bauhaus gains self-confidence and is now “among the best”

For a long time, the 4th stage of the 110th Tour of France had pretty much nothing to offer.

In the final, however, things got all the more hectic – with three falls within the last two kilometers on the Nogaro racetrack.

Like the day before, Jasper Philipsen excelled in the headwind sprint thanks to another very strong leadout from Mathieu van der Poel.

But the German hopeful Phil Bauhaus also confirmed his performance from the day before and established himself among the world’s best.

Three things that stood out:

1. Bauhaus is “among the best”

After his second place in Bayonne, Phil Bauhaus was still cautious. He was a bit disappointed to have just missed out on victory because he didn’t know if he would come that close again. Everything could look completely different on Tuesday and he wouldn’t even be able to sprint into the top ten. But it didn’t happen that way – on the contrary: In Nogaro, too, the 28-year-old did brilliantly in the battle for positions and sprinted with the very best to reward himself with third place. And after that he didn’t sound quite so reserved anymore.

“I’ve proven that I’m one of the best,” he now said confidently and set himself some goals for the coming sprint finishes – the next one will probably be on Friday in Bordeaux: “I hope I’ll be the first to ( Jasper Philipsen, editor’s note) can beat.” Bauhaus thinks he’s “definitely” in the shape of his life, just in time for his Tour de France debut. There are only small differences that decide between the fastest sprinters in this 110th Tour of France about victory or defeat.

The fact that Bauhaus did so well on its tour debut, despite the fact that the hustle and bustle here in the stage finals is greater than perhaps anywhere else due to the extremely high level of competition, is because that is exactly what suits him. “I’ve always been very, very good at following the rear wheels. That’s because I was never the strongest, even in the juniors, but always had to drive a bit with my eyes. I think that helps me,” explained he told “radsport-news.com” in Nogaro.

In addition, he has his best friend in Nikias Arndt as a starter for the sprints. “Of course it also plays a role that in the final you have someone you trust 100 percent,” he explained. In addition, almost the entire team at Bahrain Victorious is behind Bauhaus on a sprinter day. Pello Bilbao, a potential top 5 candidate for the overall classification, also works for the German in the sprint preparation. “It looks strong from me in the end, but it wouldn’t be possible without my teammates,” said Bauhaus.

In the next two days, however, he and buddy Arndt will take a back seat. In the Pyrenees, it’s all about getting through as effortlessly as possible so that you can be ready again in Bordeaux on Friday.

2. Philipsen and van der Poel grow together to form an ingenious duo

Two sprint arrivals, twice Jasper Philipsen as winner and twice perfectly launched by Mathieu van der Poel. Although Philipsen lost his sprint train at the Nogaro circuit, he and van der Poel found themselves on the home stretch and flipped the switch in a flash. They did everything right: they waited a moment in the headwind, then van der Poel went full throttle and only 150 meters from the finish line did Philipsen come out of the slipstream at high speed – it couldn’t be better!

While nothing has worked out so far at Soudal – Quick-Step and the legend of the approach, Michael Morkov, was thrown off balance by Phil Bauhaus in the battle for positions on Monday and was ousted by Wout van Aert’s rear wheel, van der Poel is currently preparing to become the best leadout man to become touring.

“He made an incredible leadout for me and led me to victory,” praised Philipsen in almost the same words as the day before and van der Poel himself said: “I found the perfect gap at the perfect time and delivered Jasper the way he did wanted. It’s going to be another nice evening in the room tonight. The confidence is there, the pressure after the win is off. We’re in a good position with him as a sprinter and me in the leadout. I think I’m a good last man for him. He likes to start the sprint at high speed and so the suit fits.”

After four days, Philipsen is now leading the points classification with 150 points and is already 80 points ahead of second-placed Victor Lafay (Cofidis). As good as the train at Alpecin – Deceuninck works and as strong as Philipsen executes, there is currently no reason to doubt that he will wear the green jersey all the way to Paris and win one or two more stages along the way. It will be exciting when the day comes when van der Poel himself goes hunting for stages.

3. The tour needs a solution against boredom

For the second day in a row, very little happened at the Tour de France apart from the bunch sprint at the end of the stage. Strictly speaking, the section to Nogaro even ‘beaten’ the day before. For 90 kilometers the peloton just rolled along, and even when after the intermediate sprint with Anthony Delaplace (Arkéa – Samsic) and Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R – Citroen) a tentative breakaway duo was found, there was hardly any tension.

Long flat stages are becoming increasingly obsolete on big tours, because even the wildcard teams no longer travel to the tour just to watch TV for a few hours. Every team has specific goals. The ASO must therefore think about how these flat stages in particular can be made more attractive in the future – with new rating formats for outliers, for example.