"The Tour de France victory and this one, so it makes it very rewarding" - Jasper Philipsen takes La Vuelta lead with dominant sprint

The Vuelta a Espana started with a pure sprint stage and the strongest sprinter in the race delivered. The Alpecin-Deceuninck leader Jasper Philipsen rode to a comfortable win on stage 1 and has taken on the red jersey, exactly in the same way as he did at the Tour de France.

"Winning is always nice, and especially when there's still a red jersey waiting. I have to thank my teammates again. Just like during the first stage of the Tour de France, we were able to work out the lead-out the way we wanted," Philipsen said in a post-race interview.

It was a chaotic finale, but with the lack of serious leadouts in the peloton, the Alpeicn men took over in the final kilometer at the right time. "Jonas (Rickaert, ed.) and Edward (Planckaert, ed.) did a perfect job in the final kilometer; I didn't have to attack until 175 meters out, so it went perfectly." Philipsen put in a strong sprint from pole position and no-one could even get off his wheel.

Hence, although he didn't perform much until the summer, he has now been able to take two very important wins. "I've had several moments of bad luck this season, but there are also some highlights, with the Tour de France victory and this one, so it makes it very rewarding".

He will start tomorrow's stage in the red jersey and because of Mads Pedersen's absence from the sprint, his points jersey ambitions can also grow significantly. "After my crash, I was very disappointed. You work so hard towards that, and then suddenly you have to find new goals. The red jersey was a nice goal to aim for, but we knew we only had one chance. There aren't many opportunities for sprinters in this Vuelta".