'It hurts' - Philipsen battles through tough Vuelta finale to strike again
The 27-year-old Belgian claimed the sixth Vuelta a España stage win of his career, and the same number in terms of victories in 2025.
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) secured his third victory of the 2025 Vuelta a España after what the Belgian described as a “really, really tough finish” in Guijuelo ahead of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
It’s been a long wait for the Belgian who was victorious in the last sprint stage back on stage 8 to Zaragoza, illustrating the difficult nature of this Vuelta for the sprinters with few opportunities.
"Yeah, it was a really, really tough finish, definitely after 11 days not going this deep, it hurts," Philipsen said in his post-race interview.
It marks the 16th Grand Tour stage win of Philipsen's career, who is currently third in the list of active riders behind the Slovenian pair of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
The Belgian's perfectly-timed effort on the uphill finale saw him overcome a strong challenge from Pedersen, with Orluis Aular (Movistar) taking third ahead of Jenthe Biermans (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Ben Turner (Ineos).
Ineos had controlled the race in the closing kilometres on behalf of Turner, with Egan Bernal and Filippo Ganna putting in impressive turns on the drag towards the finish. However, Philipsen's Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates delivered their sprinter to the front at the perfect moment.
"Yeah, of course, it's definitely a team job, like the whole Vuelta already the team was super strong, also Jonas [Rickaert] and Edward [Planckaert] were riding super fast, super good, and yeah I was struggling in the wheel but I saw the finish line and pushed through, and it's really nice," explained Philipsen when asked about his winning effort.
Despite the challenging finale, which saw the road rise to around an average of 3% for the final three kilometres, Philipsen and his Alpecin teammates were well prepared for the finish. "Yeah, we knew what it was going to be like, and the final 250m were more flat, but before that the team did an amazing pull, amazing timing towards the last km, and it was just a final km all out."
With three stage wins already secured, Philipsen has his sights set on a potential fourth victory in Madrid on the final day of the Vuelta on Sunday.
"Yeah, of course, with this team we try to keep the winning flow going and the guys are really experienced and they're the best in this job and yeah we'll just try to repeat it on Sunday, the final day, but they're really looking forward because it's been a tough three weeks," he added.
