Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen made it three wins at this year’s Vuelta a Espana as he sprinted clear at the end of stage 19, while overall leader Jonas Vingegaard added four seconds to his advantage over Joao Almeida on Friday.
After 160km of relatively flat riding in west central Spain, Philipsen burst to the front near the finish and never looked like being caught.
Denmark’s Mads Pedersen was the first to make his move, but could not resist Philipsen as he crossed the line in second place with Venezuela’s Orluis Aular third.
Photo: EPA
Vingegaard finished safely in the bunch after picking up an unexpected four bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in Salamanca, 60km from the finish as main rival Joao Almeida was caught napping.
The penultimate stage yesterday was to be a brutal mountainous route featuring more than 4,000m of climbing, offering the last realistic chance for Almeida to catch Vingegaard.
With no chance for the sprinters to battle it out since he won stage eight in Zaragoza, Philipsen seized his opportunity with a lung-bursting sprint on an uphill drag to the line after being perfectly set up by his team.
“It was a really tough finish and after 11 days not going this deep it hurts,” Philipsen told TNT Sport. “The final 250m was more flat, but before that the team did amazing.”
“I was struggling in the middle but I pushed through and when I saw the finish line it was really nice. We will try to repeat on Sunday. It’s been a tough three weeks,” he said.
Vingegaard, closing in on his first Vuelta triumph after twice winning the Tour de France, lost some seconds in Thursday’s time trial, but extended his lead over Almeida with a sneaky attack in the center of Salamanca.
With Almeida’s team failing to notice his move, Vingegaard pounced to lead the peloton across the intermediate sprint line behind Jakub Otruba, who spent half the race alone after an early solo breakaway.
Vingegaard has looked comfortable in the red jersey, but the four extra seconds would give him a boost for yesterday’s 165km stage that was to end at the Bola del Mundo at the top of the Navacerrada Mountain Pass and features five categorized climbs.
The UK’s Tom Pidcock retained third place overall on Friday and was to start the penultimate stage 2 minutes, 43 seconds back and seeking to seal his first general classification podium finish in a Grand Tour.
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