VOIRON, France (AFP) — Jasper Philipsen admitted he had been feeling the pressure before sprinting to a dominant victory from a reduced bunch 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 teammate Mathieu van der Poel, Philipsen surged several bike lengths clear of Mauro Schmid and Olav Kooij, who had each already won a stage at the Tour.

This 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.

He said that the first part of the Tour had been “horrible, I couldn’t find myself, I couldn’t find the form I was hoping for.”

And he admitted that he had been feeling the pressure to deliver.

“Of course, the team is not saying that I have to win but... we did the preparation, we have a full lead-out squad, we are here for stage wins not for the GC (general classification) and there’s always expectations,” Philipsen said.

“When I don’t deliver, of course they’re not gonna shoot me or anything but... that builds a lot of pressure on me.”

“It’s just something hard to deal with sometimes.”

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 174.7-kilometer stage from Chambery to Voiron.

“Mathieu is a very crucial factor not only today but also in my previous stage wins in the Tour,” Philipsen said.

“He is a big, big advantage that we have in our team and that’s also something — when Mathieu van der Poel does a lead-out for you, you want to deliver, you want to win because... not many guys have the privilege to have a lead out guy like him.”

As well as a former world champion, Van der Poel is one of the best one-day classics specialists in the world having won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders three times each, and Milan-San Remo twice.

He is also a record eight-time cyclocross world champion.

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 team-mate 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 100 kms 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 Stuyven 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.