Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) got to work making up for his abandon of the Tour de France by levelling up to leader of the Vuelta a España after winning the opening stage in Turin.
Philipsen’s teammates delivered him to the front at the perfect moment, allowing him to easily hold off any challengers. Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) was second and Orluis Aular (Movistar Team) third.
How it unfolded
Starting with the Gran Salida in Turin, the opening stage of this year’s Vuelta a España took the race along a 186.1km-long route across the Piedmont region in the northwest of Italy for a sprint finish in the Roman city of Novara.
The day began with a group of six riders establishing itself at the head of the race, as Alessandro Verre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), 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) got themselves up the road.
Their advantage was kept well within check by the peloton, with Lidl-Trek and Alpecin-Deceuninck controlling the gap for most of the day, as they looked to ensure a sprint finish for respective sprinters.
The sole categorised climb of the day came around 63km into the stage, with Verre taking the maximum points to secure the polka dot jersey for tomorrow’s stage. Meanwhile, Reinderink was the first to cross the line at the intermediate sprint in Valdengo ahead of Vinokurov and Bouwman, giving them six, four and two bonus seconds respectively.
The peloton then gradually began to reel in the breakaway and had…
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