Vuelta a Espana 2021 : Stage 2 – Philipsen gets his sprint on, Roglic stays in red

It was another #hothot day on Stage 2 of Vuelta 2021 and one of the very few flat stages in any Vuelta ever. Yet, the final 5km to the sprint finish was messier than a messy thing from Messy Town. In the end, Alpecin-Fenix’s Jasper Philipsen, just pipping DQS’s Fabio Jakobsen and BEXer Michael Matthews. Primoz Roglic didn’t get caught in the crash at 4km out and stays intact and in red.

The #unpretty sprint

Not only was it #unpretty, watching it back on this clip, it feels like the longest sprint in the history of the world. But Alpecin-Fenix did all the right things for Jasper Philipsen to take his second career Vuelta stage win.

Alpecin-Fenix might not be a World Tour team but they don’t let that stop them. They have won the first sprints of each of this year’s grand tours. Tim Merlier took Giro Stage 2 and TdF Stage 3.

Other sprintastic news

Second in the sprint today was Fabio Jakobsen. That he can come back from last year’s hideous crash and go full gas in a chaotic sprint is mind-boggling, really. Here’s hoping he gets his win this week.

Groupama-FDJ did a lot of work on the front of the peloton for much of the #hothot stage but when it came to the finish, they seemed to melt away.

Ahem. What’s that expression about pride?

Heading into the red

Primoz Roglic keeps the red jersey, after avoiding the crash at 4km.

This is the monster of a stage 3 … with a summit finish that goes on and on at 8%, 9%, 10% …

Predictions: 

The final word

All the results

Stage results 

1 Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) 3:58:57

2 Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) same time

3 Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) s/t

4 Juan Molano (UAE Team Emirates) s/t

5 Alex Aranburu (Astana-Premier Tech) s/t

GC Top 10 

1 Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 4:07:29

2 Alex Aranburu (Astana-Premier Tech) +0:04

3 Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) +0:10

4 Josef Cerny (Deceuninck-QuickStep) same time

5 Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:11

6 Andrea Bagioli (Deceuninck-QuickStep) +0:12

7 Alexandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) +0:14

8 Jan Polanc (UAE) +0:15

9 Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) +0:15

10 Chad Haga (DSM) +0:17

All the jerseys

Leader’s jersey : Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)

Points jersey : Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix)

King of the Mountains: Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma)

Best young rider : Andrea Bagioli 

Best team : Jumbo-Visma 

For full race results, go to CyclingNews.com 

Official Vuelta website is here 

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