photo credits @ La Vuelta
Just a few weeks after he claimed the first Maillot Jaune of the Tour de France, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninnk) powered to victory in Novara on day 1 Vuelta a España, thus conquering the La Roja as the first overall leader of the race. The Belgian sprinter achieved a successful comeback, four years after his last participation in the Spanish Grand Tour – he already claimed three star wins across the 2020 and 2021 editions – and a month and half after crashing out of the Tour de France with a collarbone injury. On a mostly flat course, his team took control early in the day to manage the breakaway, with the Belgian sprinter proving he was head and shoulders above his rivals, with Great Britain’s Ethan Vernon (Israel Premier Tech) coming 2nd ahead of Venezuela’s Orluis Aular (Movistar) while Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) had to settle for 14th.
Race Highlights
It took 2.5 kilometers for a group of five to emerge at the front of the race with Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal Quick-Step), Nicolas Vinokurov (XDS Astana), Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Koen Bouwman (Jayco AlUla) and Hugo de la Calle (Burgos Burpellet BH) riding clear. Alessandro Verre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) immediately joined them to make it a 6-man breakaway, including three debutants in La Vuelta (Reinderink, De la Calle and Verre).
The gap never got much higher than 2 minutes en route to the climb of the day – La Serra. Vinokurov and Reinderink tried to surprise their rivals with a long range attack. But Verre proved to be the strongest at the summit, narrowly getting the better of Nicolau to all but secure the first polka-dot jersey, while at the summit the peloton trailed by 2’15’’.
Vinokurov attacked again ahead of the intermediate sprint, while Reinderink closely marked his move. This time, the Dutch rider went first on the line. Meanwhile, the peloton moved much closer. With 85 kilometers to go, the attackers were already caught, except for De la Calle, who pushed on.
From there, the young rider pushed on and got his lead back up to one minute. But with Lidl-Trek and Alpecin-Deceuninck still setting the pace, he was eventually caught with 38 kilometers to go to Novara.
The tensions increased as the peloton got closer to Novara, as Alpecin-Deceuninck drove the bunch during the last kilometer, while Pedersen was caught behind.
Philipsen ultimately proved to be the strongest in sprint, powering to the La Roja ahead of his British and Venezuelan rivals.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
