This is the 80th victory for Gilbert, headliner of the event, who will retire at the end of the season.
A success built by raising your arms during the stage arriving at Mont-Saint-Eloi on Thursday and validated on the slopes of Mont Cassel on Saturday, which a last quiet day never threatened.
As since the beginning of the week, the stage was animated by a breakaway which did not shake the peloton.
The group, made up of the French Alexis Renard (Cofidis), Clément Carisey (Go Sport) and Joris Delbove (St Michel-Auber93), accompanied by the Swiss Fabian Lienhard (Groupama-FDJ) and the Belgian Gilles de Wilde (Sport Vlaanderen), has was caught 7 kilometers from the finish.
In the meantime, the leading men had taken the bonus seconds in the intermediate sprints preventing any reversal of the situation.
Disorganized by the attack of the Polish Maciej Bodnar (TotalEnergies) 2 kilometers from the goal, the sprinters' teams were unable to organize their trains correctly.
Starting from afar, Thijssen quickly widened the gap and easily beat the French Hugo Hofstetter (Arkéa-Samsic) and Lorrenzo Manzin (TotalEnergies).
© 2022 AFP