The Master! Jasper Philipsen holds off Elia Viviani for another stage win at 2025 Vuelta a Espana
Cycling
Jasper Philipsen has sprinted to the win on stage 8 of the 2025 Vuelta a Espana in Zaragoza, holding off a strong charge from experienced Italian Elia Viviani at the line.
A three-man breakaway formed early on with Sergio Samitier (Cofidis), Joan Bou (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) and Jose Luis Faura (Burgos Burpellet BH) giving the peloton and the sprint teams something to chase. Although the time gap initially went up over the four minute mark, the bunch was more keen to keep things a little tighter, holding the attackers closer to three minutes for much of the first half of the stage.
Inside the final 50km of the day, the peloton had begun to step up the pace, and after Green Jersey Mads Pedersen led the peloton over the intermediate sprint at around 42km to go to extend his points classification lead, the time gap to the break had been slashed to just over a minute and a half. At around 20km to go, Faura was the first of the breakaway to feel the pace and be dropped. By the time they reached 17km to go though, Bou and Samitier had both also been swallowed up by the bunch.
With this being one of the limited sprint opportunities in the remainder of this Vuelta, the fight for position at the front of the bunch was fierce as the peloton raced full gas towards the finale. At the back meanwhile, it was notable that Juan Ayuso was dropping away, seemingly losing time on purpose to boost his hopes of future breakaway stage wins.
All those still in GC contention safely got through the 5km to go banner, nullifying chances of any GC time gaps through mechanicals or late crashes. In the sprint for the stage win, it was Lotto holding the front into the finale, working for Elia Viviani but as they opened their kicks for the finish line it was Jasper Philipsen who took victory ahead of the experienced Italian.
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