Vuelta a España stage 8 LIVE – Philipsen vs Pedersen on last flat sprint day for a while

The main rider looking for a win today will be Jasper Philipsen.

He’s the purest sprinter here, and should be the fastest, but after winning the first stage, he was beaten by Ben Turner on the next sprint day after Alpecin messed up the lead-out. He’ll try to rectify things today and prove he is the fastest sprinter here.

Want to read something before the action starts?

This story is the one that’s kicked off overnight – unsurprisingly.

‘He doesn’t really pull a lot of times, right?’ – João Almeida frustrated by Jonas Vingegaard’s lack of cooperation at Vuelta a España

45 minutes to go

The stage starts in about 45 minutes.

When we say flat, it is really flat today, with not so much as one categorised climb across the 163.5km kilometres. So there should be a breakaway but it might be hard for them to get away, with no launchpads.

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews’ coverage of stage 8 of the Vuelta a España.

It’s a flat day today, and probably the last chance for the sprinters for quite a while, so we’re expecting quite a battle.