Stage 19 of the Tour de France was one of the last two chances for sprinters to shine in the 2022 Tour de France, which has few flat stages. That is why Jasper Philipsen was disappointed to lose the handle of his Alpecin-Desseuninck teammate and a chance to win behind solo attacker Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma).

"I think I had a chance, but I made a mistake in the corner and lost my teammate's handle. 'Laporte drove away in a big mess.'

The 188.3 km stage to Cahors was supposed to be flat, but two Category 4 climbs, an undulating run-in, and a short uphill finish made it tough on Philipsen's team.

"I think it was a hard race and the final run-in was tough. We didn't have much help left and it was a bit confusing," said Philipsen.

The team had a lot of help to control an early five-rider breakaway, but with 30km to go, a more dangerous countermove held on until just a few minutes into the stage. three leaders came into view when green jersey Wout Van Aert The three leaders were only visible after the green jersey of Wout Van Aert had chased them down.

In the final sprint, Philipsen was the leader of the bunch ahead of Alberto Dainese (DSM), but Laporte had already broken away, giving Jumbo-Visma his fifth Tour win.

"Now that we are down to six riders, we always have to think about how to give the right effort at the right moment," Philipsen said of his short-handed team, which lacks the strong Mathieu Van der Poel and Michal Gogl, who dropped out in the first two weeks." The race is only going to be what it will be, and today was not in our favor."