Friday, February 7, 2025

July 6, 2022

Embarrassing Moment Tour De France Cyclist Thinks He’s Won The Stage [Video]

I can't blame Belgian Jasper Philipsen for celebrating what he thought was his first Tour de France stage win.

[imagesource: Twitter / @itvcycling]

Just making it to the starting line of the Tour de France takes dedication and physical endurance the likes of which most of us will never understand.

I can’t blame Belgian Jasper Philipsen for celebrating winning stage four of the Tour in Calais, the first of his career and his finest cycling achievement to date.

Except for one rather glaring mistake on his part – he didn’t actually win because fellow Belgian Wout van Aert crossed the finish line a good few seconds ahead of him.

That’s van Aert with the wing celebration and then Philipsen in the chasing pack, unaware he’s competing for second:

A slightly longer video for more context, complete with Philipsen admitting that he will need to learn to laugh at himself about this one:

I’ll soften the blow and point out that both celebrations were actually worthy of a stage win:

Philipsen spoke with Cycling Weekly post-race:

“On the climb I never saw him riding in front, it’s a disappointment for sure,” Philipsen [said]…

“It will make funny images in the end. I didn’t want this though so it’s a bit s**t also. I just didn’t know he [Van Aert] was in front. I also never heard on the radio so yeah that’s a shame and why I sprinted for the win.”

To his credit, he poked fun at himself on social media not long afterwards:

This opened the door for Italian Alberto Bettiol to chime in. Last month, Bettiol fell into the same trap when celebrating what he thought was a stage victory at the Tour de Suisse.

He’s glad someone else has stepped up to the plate:

At least Philipsen can rest easy in the knowledge that his blunder will never be quite as infamous as Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten’s misjudged celebration at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, who mistakenly thought she had won gold in the women’s cycling road race.

[source:cyclingweekly]