Jaspers Filipsens | Photo: “Vuelta a Espana”
“Back to Spain”
Belgian cyclist Jaspers Filipsen from the Alpecin-Fenix team won the second stage of the multi-day cycling race “Vuelta a Espana” on Sunday. In the second stage of the Spanish tour, the athletes measured a distance of 166.7 kilometers of plain at 31 degrees Celsius.
Phillipsen won the group finish, ahead of Deceuninck Quick-Step rider Fabio Jakobsen from the Netherlands and BikeExchange rider Michael Matthew. “Jumbo-Visma” rider and current champion Slovenian Primožs Rogličs retains the red shirt of the overall leader after winning the first stage, while Filipsens won the green sprint of the best sprint at the finish. Rogličs is ahead of Spaniard Alex Aranbur (“Astana – Premier”) by four seconds in the overall competition of 184 drivers, and Matthew and Czech Joseph Cherni (“Deceuninck – Quick Step”) by ten seconds.
The main Slovenian competitors to the overall victory – Egan Bernal from Colombia, the leader of Ineos Grenadiers, and Richard Karapass from Ecuador, who won the Tokyo Olympics and therefore rides in a gold helmet, finished in the big group. Ede Yeats, another member of the British team “Ineos Grenadiers”, along with several other riders shortly before the finish, fell in the fight for a better position in the finish and lost 31 seconds to the big group, with the leader losing 51 seconds. “I had a lot of support and that’s how we can win the sprint. Each of us can be very happy tonight, and we have embarked on this “big tour” in a good way, “said the winner after the finish.
Dutch vice-champion Jakobsen may also be pleased to return to shape after nearly deadly injuries on a tour of Poland a year ago, when he crashed into a pole during the finish sprint and lost all his teeth. Philippe beat him by a few centimeters after a risky journey to the finish line on the shortest route and the barriers. Jakobsen, on the other hand, took a longer trip. On Monday, cyclists will complete a 202.8-kilometer section with two third-category ascents and a first-class ascent of 755 meters. The last of the big tours will finish on September 5 in Santiago de Compostela. This year, none of the Latvian cyclists took part in it. Krists Neilands was close to it, but the trauma prevented the Latvian from making his debut “Vuelta a Espana”.
Polish tour
On Sunday, Latvian cyclist Emīls Liepiņš from the “Trek – Segafredo” team took 112th place in the seventh stage of the multi-day cycling tour “Tour de Pologne” included in the UCI World Tour, finishing 104th in the overall rating, and second place in the “King of the Mountains” rating. In the last stage of the tour, cyclists had to cover a 145.1-kilometer section from Zabze to Krakow, with a third category ascent in the first 20 kilometers of the stage.
The victory at the finish of the big group was divided by a group of four riders, who had deviated from the big group by four seconds. The winner was Julius van den Berg from the Netherlands (EF Education – Nippo), who overtook Israel Start-Up Nation cyclist Alexy Renar and Misto Georgenson, an American from Movistar. “Redundant”, remaining in the fourth, turned out to be the Italian Gianni Moskon from “Ineos Grenadiers”. Liepiņš finished in the big group of 141 drivers.
In the overall standings, the winner was the second and fourth stage winner Juáu Almeida from Portugal from the team “Deceuninck – Quick Step”, who was 20 seconds ahead of the Slovenes Matthew Mohorich (Bahrain – Victorious) and by 27 seconds – the pole Mikhail Kvjatkovski (“Ineos Grenad”) . Liepiņš lost 28 minutes and 54 seconds to the leader, which gave him 104th place, but in the evaluation of the “king of the mountains”, the Dobel player took the second place, conceding only to the Polish national cyclist Lukash Ovsyan. Last year, the Belgian Remko Evenepul won the overall rating. This year, the Polish tour celebrated its 78th anniversary.
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