Vuelta a España: Jasper Philipsen sprints to stage 2 victory

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Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) claimed stage 2 of the Vuelta a España in a close sprint finish.

The Belgian managed to find a gap to the left of Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates), who began the sprint, and edged out Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) in second and Michael Matthews (BikeExchange) in third.

Alex Aranburu (Astana-PremierTech) managed to take some seconds at the intermediate sprint to reduce his deficit to Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma). But his fifth-place finish in the final sprint wasn’t enough to gain the time needed to unseat Roglic as overall leader. 

Despite expectations of wind, conditions were mild and the bunch remained together until with 4.2km to go when a crash saw several key riders, including Adam Yates, Jack Haig, and Hugh Carthy all lose over 30 seconds to overall leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma).

This was, however, a day for the sprinters to steal the headlines, and Philipsen took the glory.

Despite his Alpecin-Fenix team having numbers towards the front in the final kilometres, along with Deceuninck-QuickStep, it was UAE Team Emirates who seized control on the finishing straight, with Matteo Trentin at the front in the final few hundred metres.

Trentin had teammate Juan Sebastian Molano in his wheel, with Michael Matthews in Molano’s wheel, and both Philipsen and Jakobsen vying for Matthews’ wheel.

When Molano launched his sprint, both Matthews and Jakobsen targeted the wide space to his right to sprint into, while Philipsen went for the smaller space to his left.

The decision proved to be the right one, as Philipsen stormed past Molano, and edged Jakobsen into second, perhaps benefiting from the clearer line to the finish.

Although UAE Team Emirates ultimately lead out the sprint, Philipsen was full of praise for Alpecin-Fenix for keeping him well-positioned in the final kilometres. 

“It was amazing to see all my teammates there. Everybody was in the front line, so I had a lot of support from the team. This is how we can win sprints, and I think we did a really good job. Each of us can be very happy tonight," he said.

“This was the first big goal, and I’m already really happy that it worked out in the first sprint. Now we just go on and we try to get other ones, I think not only in the sprints, but on other terrains.” 

How it unfolded

The weather had been tipped to play a significant role in how this first road stage of the Vuelta a Espana panned out.

As expected, it was very hot, with temperatures in the mid-thirties, but the wind was not strong enough to affect the race. 

Consequently, the stage began in familiar, formulaic circumstances, with three riders from wildcard teams escaping up the road from the flag to form the day’s break: Diego Rubio (Burgos-BH), Sergio Martin (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Xabier Mikel Azparren (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

They were pinned at about two minutes by the peloton, although not from the work of race leader Primoz Roglic’s Jumbo-Visma, who took a back seat; but rather those of the sprinters, with Arnaud Demare’s Groupama-FDJ and Fabio Jakobsen’s Deceuninck-QuickStep sharing the bulk of the work. 

The peloton upped the pace slightly but noticeably about one-third of the way into the stage, presumably in anticipation of a change of direction, but eased off again the wind failed to blow, allowing the break’s lead to grow back up to around two-and-a-half minutes. 

The stage was not quite as nervous as many opening road stages of a Grand Tour are, but there was one crash 80km from the finish when Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix) went down. He appeared unhurt and was able to continue. 

Another increase in pace saw the gap come back down to under one minute, once again in anticipation of a change in direction 63km from the finish. Multiple teams vied to be at the front of the peloton, with Jumbo-Visma succeeding in leading around the corner, but the wind was still not strong enough for them to press on. 

The action was enough to bring the break’s advantage down to just 30 seconds, but the subsequent relaxation meant they were again allowed some leeway, and by 40km to go it was still at 1-40.

Groupama-FDJ took control of the peloton at this point, eager to keep Demare well-positioned and safe as the finale approached. 

The break broke up 32km from the finish, with Rubio riding away from Martin and Azparren, who were promptly swallowed up by the peloton. That gave Rubio a little more time out front, but his day too came to an end 20km from the finish.  

By now the peloton were battling for positioning in anticipation of an upcoming intermediate sprint, aware that bonus seconds and points classification points were on offer now that all the breakaway riders had been caught. 

Astana-PremierTech showed the most intent, hoping they could get some time and points for their man Alex Aranburu, who was second on both GC and the points classification. But he was edged out by Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) in the sprint, having to settle for second. 

With the intermediate sprint done, GC teams like Bahrain-Victorious and Ineos Grenadiers contested for position at the front of the peloton to keep their leaders safe. 

They were wise to do so, as a crash occurred 4.3km from the finish that held up plenty of riders. As it happened just outside of the 3km cut-off point, it also meant that anyone caught out would not be given a time reprieve.

Lots of Bora-Hansgrohe riders were seen on the floor, including Patrick Gamber and Jordi Meeus, with Adam Yates and several other riders all losing time.

After that, the sprinters teams came to the fore, with Deceuninck-QuickStep and Alpecin-Fenix both at the front for a sharp corner onto the straight, 1.7km finishing straight, on which Philipsen triumphed.