Belgian Jasper Philipsen finally claimed a win in this year's Tour de France when he took out the 10th stage with a textbook sprint in Saint-Amand-Montrond.

Philipsen, who won four stages in last year's Tour de France, benefited from a perfect lead-out by Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate and world champion Mathieu van der Poel to prevail after 187.3 kilometres from Orleans.

Eritrean Biniam Girmay, who has already won two stages in this edition, took second place, with German Pascal Ackermann coming home third.

Jai Hindley and Jack Haig were the best-placed Australians in 37th and 41st respectively.

Slovenian Tadej Pogačar retained the overall leader's yellow jersey after an uneventful day as the peloton gears up for a tricky mountain stage in the Massif Central on Wednesday.

The peloton stayed compact throughout the stage amid a few rain showers, but everyone stayed quiet after Monday's rest day.

Agitation came in the final 5km with the sprinters' teams looking to get the best position.

Van der Poel crushed the pedals with 300 metres to go, leaving Philipsen to finish it off comfortably for his seventh career stage win on the Tour.

It was a big relief for the 26 year-old, whose best result in this year's race was a second place since the start in Florence.

"We came on the Tour de France with a strong lead-out train and it paid off today," Philipsen said.

"The mark is checked, now we can continue the Tour with more confidence.

"We just had to keep believing, but every time you waste an opportunity, it's gone, and chances are limited."

The only bad news for Philipsen is that he did not regain much ground on Girmay as his rival stayed firmly in control of the points classification.

Girmay has 267 points to Philipsen's 195.

Reuters