Jasper Philipsen Sprints To Victory On Stage 19 To Complete Vuelta Hat-trick

Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen sprinted clear astatine nan extremity of shape 19 to seal his 3rd triumph astatine this year’s Vuelta a España connected Friday while wide leader Jonas Vingegaard added 4 seconds to his advantage complete Joño Almeida.

After 160km of comparatively level riding successful westbound cardinal Spain, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Philipsen burst to nan beforehand adjacent nan decorativeness and ne'er looked for illustration being caught.

Denmark’s Mads Pedersen was nan first to make his move but could not clasp disconnected Philipsen and he crossed nan statement successful 2nd spot pinch Venezuela’s Orluis Aular third.

Visma-Lease a Bike rider Vingegaard vanished safely successful nan bunch aft picking up an unexpected 4 prize seconds astatine nan intermediate sprint successful Salamanca, 60km from nan decorativeness erstwhile Almeida was caught napping.

Saturday’s penultimate shape is simply a sadistic mountainous way featuring much than 4,000m of climbing, offering nan past realistic chance for Almeida to drawback Vingegaard.

With nary chance for nan sprinters to conflict it retired since he won shape 8 successful Zaragoza, Philipsen seized his opportunity pinch a lung-bursting sprint connected an uphill resistance to nan statement aft being perfectly group up by his team.

“It was a really reliable decorativeness and aft 11 days not going this heavy it hurts,” Philipsen told TNT Sport. “The last 250m was much level but earlier that nan squad did amazing.
“I was struggling successful nan mediate but I pushed done and erstwhile I saw nan decorativeness statement it was really nice. We will effort to repetition connected Sunday. It’s been a reliable 3 weeks.”

Vingegaard, closing successful connected his first Vuelta triumph aft doubly winning nan Tour de France, mislaid immoderate seconds successful Thursday’s clip proceedings but extended his lead complete Almeida pinch a sneaky onslaught successful nan centre of Salamanca.

With Almeida’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad failing to announcement his move, Vingegaard pounced to lead nan peloton crossed nan intermediate sprint statement down Jakub Otruba, who spent half nan title unsocial aft an early solo breakaway.

Vingegaard has looked comfortable successful nan reddish jersey but nan 4 other seconds will springiness him a boost up of Saturday’s 165km shape that ends astatine nan Bola del Mundo astatine nan apical of nan Navacerrada Mountain Pass and features 5 categorised climbs.

Britain’s Tom Pidcock retained 3rd spot wide for Q36.5 Pro Cycling connected Friday and will commencement nan penultimate shape 2 minutes 43 seconds backmost and seeking to seal his first wide classification podium decorativeness successful a Grand Tour.

Australia’s Jai Hindley is 4th overall, 39 seconds down Pidcock.