Vuelta a Espana stage 19 results - Jasper Philipsen beats Pedersen and Aular to conquer a third sprint stage

The Vuelta a Espana has had its penultimate sprint stage this Friday afternoon, and the uphill sprint saw Jasper Philipsen take the victory, winning his third stage in the final Grand Tour of the season.

The stage had a fully flat profile until the end and was virtually a transition stage through the arid plains of central Spain. There were only two riders trying to form a breakaway: Jakub Otruba and Victor Guernalec, with the latter dropping out very early on and leaving the Caja Rural rider isolated with 145 kilometers to go.

The stage was rather calm until the passage through Salamanca, where a distracted UAE did not try to prevent Jonas Vingegaard from capturing 4 seconds in the intermedia sprint, and later on echelon attempts also saw USE having to catch back to Vingegaard, catching a second breakaway of two Burgos riders: Sergio Chumil and Mario Aparicio.

But nothing could prevent a bunch sprint, an uphill one in Guijuelo where INEOS tried from early on to make it difficult. However Alpecin-Deceuninck took to the front when it mattered, with a textbook leading out Jasper Philipsen to a spotless sprint that earned him the victory. He beat Mads Pedersen and Orluis Aular to the line.