It was a rapid final sprint over the stony roads of the Champs-Élysées, with Philipsen emerging the clear winner after sprinting from the wheel of Dylan Groenewegen (BikeExchange-Jayco) to take the victory.
“I cannot believe it. It’s a childhood dream coming true,” Philipsen said. “It’ll take a while to realise. I’m super proud of my team. It’s wonderful to finish the Tour like this.
“The sprint went ideally for me. I was in a great position. Dylan Groenewegen launched very early. I could stay in his wheel and I could sprint how I wanted. It’s fantastic to win on the beautiful Champs-Élysées.”
The traditional procession to Paris went by with the normal pomp, ceremony with champagne sipping, photos and joke attacks.
The pace picked up as the riders approached the centre of Paris for the circuits raced on the Champs-Élysées and, once on the famous avenue, the pace quickened further with riders attacking in their last chance for action in the race.
Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) had been in an earlier break but jumped clear again to form the most dangerous move of the day. The German was accompanied by countryman Jonas Rutsch and Owain Doull (EF Education-EasyPost), Antoine Duchesne and Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ).
The quintet got a 25-second lead with 25 kilometres to go - their maximum lead - with the peloton keeping up a hard chase throughout. They eventually caught the final remaining pair of Schachmann and Rutsch with 6.8 kilometres left to race.
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) tried a late assault after the catch of the attackers but it was tightly marked by the peloton, and overhauled as they rounded the Arc de Triomphe for the final time.
BikeExchange-Jayco came through the final bends into the finishing straight with Dylan Groenewegen seemingly in a great position, but it was Philipsen who burst away from his Dutch rival’s wheel with a fantastic turn of pace to take his second victory of the Tour de France.
Groenewegen was second, with Alexander Kristoff (Intermarche) third after the Norwegian battled with Australian Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) in the final few hundred metres. The Belgian’s margin of victory was impressive as he stretched out a gap of a few bike lengths to second-placed Groenewegen.
Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) finished the race behind the peloton arm in arm with his teammates, the five remaining riders from the starting squad of eight crossing the line together. He concluded his Tour de France winning effort and went immediately to join his family in celebrating on the Champs-Élysées, as riders and teams across the peloton did the same.
“It’s just incredible now I’ve finally won the Tour,” Vingegaard said. “Nothing can go wrong anymore, I’m sitting with my daughter with me and it’s incredible.
“It’s the biggest cycling race of the year, the biggest one to win. Now nobody can take this away from me.”
The Tour de France continues with the women's event, the Tour de France Femmes, which started overnight with the Champs-Élysées stage taken out by Lorena Wiebes. Stage 2 takes the peloton through the French countryside to Provins. Watch from 10:30pm (AEST) on SBS and SBS On Demand, or from 10:20pm (AEST) on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker.
