Jasper Philipsen easily won the sprint during the 1st stage in Novara

The Belgian, ideally launched by his teammates, has established himself in the streets of Novara on Saturday, and will take the first leader jersey of this 80th edition. His big opponent, Mads Pedersen missed and finished 14th.

This is an excellent habit that Jasper Philipsen is now taking. After the first step and the yellow jersey in Lille on the 1st stage of the Tour de France, the Belgian reoffended on the Tour of Spain. The Alpecin-Deceuninck training sprinter won the Sprint during the 1st stage, disputed in the Italian Piedmont between Turin and Novara, Saturday, August 23.

He is ahead of the British Ethan Vernon line (Israel-Prime Tech) and the Venezuelan Orluis Aurlar (Movistar). Another big favorite, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) lacked and finished 14th. First French, Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), arrives 7th.

Ideally placed by his team, which perfectly negotiated the final filled with roundabouts before dropping it off 200 meters from the line on the right side of the road on this curve arrival, Jasper Philipsen had only easily finished the work to already find the victory in the big tour, a month and a half after his abandonment on the 3rd stage of the Tour de France. “It's really a reward to wear this red jersey, it's a great gift. I trusted my teammates, we made sure to set up our train as we wanted. We knew that it would be complicated, that there are not many opportunities on this Vuelta. I had a lot of bad luck this season, but also beautiful victories with the one on the Tour and this one so I will enjoy “reacted the winner at the end of the race.

Thanks to his 4th career victory on the Vuelta (after 2020 and 2021), he takes in fact the first red leading jersey, which he will wear for the first time on Sunday, during the 2nd stage. But with an arrival at altitude, in Limone Piemonte (9.8 km at 5.1%), for the second of the three stages of departure in Italy, the Belgian should drop his tunic after a single day.