Philipsen beats Pedersen to win stage 19 of Vuelta

Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen won an uphill bunch sprint to take stage 19 of the Vuelta a Espana as Jonas Vingegaard increased his lead in the general classification.

Philipsen notched up his third stage win of the race as he out-sprinted Denmark’s Mads Pedersen at the finish of the 161.9km relatively flat route from Rueda to Guijuelo.

Pedersen, the leader of the points classification, went early but Philipsen pulled away to win by a bike length with Orluis Aular of Venezuela finishing third.

Great Britain’s Ben Turner and Ethan Vernon finished fifth and eighth respectively.

“It was a really, really tough finish. After 11 days not going this deep, it hurts,” Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Philipsen said.

“With this team, we try to keep the winning flow going and we will try to keep it going on Sunday. But it’s going to be hard because it’s been a tough three weeks.”

Vingegaard extended his lead on Portugal’s Joao Almeida to 44 seconds in the general classification as the Dane claimed four bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in Salamanca 60km from the finish.

Briton Tom Pidcock is two minutes 43 seconds behind Vingegaard in the overall standings in third.

Cycling’s third Grand Tour has been affected by pro-Palestinian protests but Friday’s stage passed off without incident.

1 Jasper Philipsen (Bel/Alpecin-Deceuninck) 3hrs 50mins 35secs

2. Mads Pedersen (Den/Lidl-Trek) Same time

3. Orluis Aular (Ven/Movistar)

4. Jenthe Biermans (Bel/Arkea-B&B Hotels)

5. Ben Turner (GB/Ineos Grenadiers)

6. Arne Marit (Bel/Intermarche-Wanty)

7. Fabio Christen (Swi/Q36.5 Pro Cycling)

8. Ethan Vernon (GB/Israel-Premier Tech)

9. Thibaud Gruel (Fra/Groupama-FDJ)

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) 68hrs 57mins 44secs

2. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +44secs

3. Tom Pidcock (GB/Q36.5 Pro Cycling) +2mins 43secs

4. Jai Hindley (Aus/Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) +3mins 22secs

5. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita/Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) +4mins 23secs

6. Matthew Riccitello (US/Israel-Premier Tech) +5mins 21secs

7. Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +5mins 24secs

8. Sepp Kuss (US/Visma-Lease a Bike) +7mins 30secs

9. Torstein Traeen (Nor/Bahrain Victorious) +7mins 46secs