Philipsen wins Vuelta a Espana opening stage / Photo: Marco BERTORELLO - AFP
Philipsen wins Vuelta a Espana opening stage
Belgian sprinter Jasper Philipsen won the opening stage of the Vuelta a Espana on Saturday powering his way to victory in a high-speed bunch sprint.
The opening four stages of the 21-day race start in Italy, before a switch to Spain.
The Alpecin rider, who will start Sunday in the overall leader's red jersey, also won the first stage of the Tour de France in July to claim the yellow jersey.
The 186.1km race set off from Turin in bright sunshine and 23 Celcius on its way through the flat and windless plains of the Po valley and its rice paddies.
Hitting the final near straight final 2.7km in Novara, Philipsen controlled the sprint as the peloton launched itself into a near straight final 2.7km being almost straight.
He had the stage in the bag from 500 metres out but still had to hold off a superb performance from Briton Ethan Vernon of IPT who took second. Venezuelan rider Orluis Aular of Movistar took third.
There were 10, 6 and 4 second bonus points for the top three.
Arkea's Italian rider Alessandro Verre took the first mountains jersey, crossing the top of the only climb of the day, a 6.4km climb at 5.3 percent incline after 64km.
Cycling fans in Turin have now been treated to a third Grand Tour in 18 months.
In 2024 it was a Tour de France arrival town, while in 2025 it has been blessed as both a Giro and a Vuelta start town
Sunday's 160km run from Alba culminates in a 10km climb to the ski resort of Limone at 1385m altitude, with the potential for a skirmish between the GC rivals Jonas Vingegaard and Juan Ayuso.
The Limone ascent is the first of 10 summit finishes on the 2025 Vuelta, all featuring over 3000m of vertical gain and marking out this Grand Tour as an extremely mountainous one.
P.Smid--EWJ
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