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.
Saturday’s 165.6km stage from Robledo de Chavela to Bola del Mundo is the final mountain stage of the race, and the final chance for Almeida to try to overhaul Vinegaard.
