"Alpecin did a perfect lead-out" - Mads Pedersen bows before rivals as his own Green jersey is virtually secured

Mads Pedersen was again defeated by Jasper Philipsen in a sprint at the 2025 Vuelta a Espana, but a second place is enough to secure a 100-point lead over Jonas Vingegaard who is the only rider who can at least theoretically threaten Pedersen's victory in the competition. Thus the Lidl-Trek sprinter seems well on the way to complete a Giro-Vuelta double when it comes to points classifications.

Philipsen was simply too fast on the rolling finish to Guijuelo and Pedersen seems in peace with the outcome of the stage. "It's okay," he said in a flash interview after the nineteenth stage.

"Now I'm comfortably in the green jersey. I didn't really have the best day so that we can be quite satisfied with second place. Especially since Alpecin did a perfect lead-out, ultimately, it was a solid day, and I earned some more points. It would take something crazy to lose it before Madrid."  

The work of Alpecin-Deceuninck's sprint train in final kilometer was simply phenomenal, Pedersen admits. Their sprinter Philipsen still had one man in front of him while Pedersen was already out in the wind, giving it his best. Then the outcome doesn't surprise the impressed Dane.

"I was getting closer and closer, but at one point I stalled. I opened up when he still had a lead-out man in front of him, so I had to do quite a long sprint. As I said, they did a perfect lead-out."

For Pedersen to win the green jersey, the only task left is to get through the final two stages safely. The Dane is normally a decent-enough climber to not get stopped by a climb such as Bola del Mundo, but he'll still take some special measures for the major last ascent of the race.

"We have a third bike with us, the lightest bike we have. I can go very, very slowly to the top," laughs Pedersen, who compares it to a gravel gear. "We only use that in the classics, but it's close."

On a day that was expected to be a bunch sprint, Movistar Team managed to carry Orluis Aular across the line in a third place on his shoulders, and the Venezuelan finished only behind Jasper Philipsen and Mads Pedersen, the two best sprinters in the race.

"It was a very hard sprint because the finish was uphill and there was a lot of headwind. I was able to be there after the team did a perfect job to place me. I tried, we have to be happy and keep fighting until the end," began Orluis Aular afterwards.

"Jasper Philipsen was the strongest. There was a lot of tension because of the wind, and some teams were trying to break the race. You had to be very well protected and in front. In the end nothing strange happened, and it was a sprint that I think was quite hard. For our part we can only say that we did a good job," added Aular.