Patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet, they say and Jasper Philipsen is likely to agree. The Belgian was expected to win several stages at this Tour de France but had to watch as Tim Merlier streaked to victory in three bunch finishes earlier in the race.But after getting into the day’s escape, and remaining calm when a smaller group made it up the road in the closing stages, Philipsen ultimately won easily in Voiron on Wednesday afternoon.Mads Pedersen scooped up maximum points at the intermediate sprint with 27km remaining, before Jasper Stuyven counter-attacked and got clear. He was caught with with 4km to go which all but guaranteed a sprint finish, and Van der Poel marshalled the situation before leading out Philipsen, who won by three or four bike lengths in the end.Jacob Whitehead and Beren Cross break down the key storylines from the stage.Philipsen reacts after finally landing the stage win he’s craved (LUCA BETTINI / BELGA MAG / Belga / AFP via Getty Images)Philipsen, at lastJasper Philipsen had to wait far longer than he, or anyone else, would have expected, but he finally secured his first win of the 2026 Tour de France on Stage 17. The 11th Tour stage win of the Belgian’s career also took him to within seven points of Mads Pedersen at the top of the points classification.Philipsen has now won at least one stage in each of the past five Tours. In this year’s edition, the 28-year-old had been fifth, fifth, fourth and third twice in the sprint stages, but Wednesday in Voiron saw his patience pay off.Given there are three successive mountain stages coming up, today was always going to be the last hurrah for any breakaway and so it proved, with a furious, seemingly endless battle to get into the selection as the race looped southwest from Chambéry.Pedersen, yet again, was the man to initially animate the stage. The green jersey ensured he got across to the breakaway after missing out in the first instance. Once he was in the front group, he was not going to be denied as the intermediate sprint closed in.The Lidl-Trek rider blasted away from the breakaway, taking five others with him, 57 kilometres from the finish line. Alpecin-Premier Tech’s Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel saw the gap to Pedersen open up, though their team-mate, Edward Planckaert was in the leading sextet.Planckaert tried to deny Pedersen maximum points at the intermediate, 27.2km from the finish, but he could only take second. The Lidl man took 25 points and Philipsen crucially mopped up nine as the seventh man through at the intermediate.From that front six, Soudal-Quick Step’s Jasper Stuyven struck out for home after the intermediate. The former winner of Milan-Sanremo was on his own and got the gap out to nearly 50 seconds, but once the Pedersen and Philipsen groups combined behind him, his bid for victory was doomed.