Sawt Falasteen - Philipsen wins sprint for Vuelta treble

General classification leader Jonas Vingegaard extended his lead on Joao Almeida by four seconds to 44 seconds overall as he claimed a bonus on the intermediate sprint.

After an individual time trial on Thursday that was shortened for security reasons, riders travelled a flat 162 kilometres from Rueda to Guijuelo, past vineyards and quiet countryside.

Cycling's third grand tour has been heavily affected by pro-Palestinian protests, mainly targeting the Israel-Premier Tech team, but this was a calm day's racing.

Jakub Otruba and Victor Guernalec formed the day's two-man break, with the peloton letting them go during a relaxed start.

Otruba dropped Guernalec and pushed on alone, into a headwind, around four minutes ahead of the peloton.

Vingegaard grabbed a four bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint as he edged Mads Pedersen, with UAE Team Emirates, and Almeida, both caught on their heels.

With around 50km remaining, Otruba was swallowed by the peloton, who travelled in unison towards Guijuelo, jostling for position ahead of the expected bunch-sprint finale.

Pedersen went early but Belgian Philipsen held him off comfortably to complete a Vuelta hat-trick, following the Alpecin–Deceuninck rider's triumphs on stages one and eight. Orluis Aular came in third behind Pedersen.

"It was a final kilometre all-out... I was suffering on the wheel, but then I saw the finish line and so I pushed through," said Philipsen.

"Of course, we'll try to keep the winning flow going... we hope to repeat it on Sunday because it's been a tough three weeks."

Despite being pipped by Philipsen, Danish rider Pedersen is virtually guaranteed victory in the points battle, leading Vingegaard by 100 with two stages remaining.

On Saturday, riders face the daunting final mountain stage, running 166km from Robledo de Chavela to Bola del Mundo, where the general classification battle between Vingegaard and Almeida will be resolved.

"I've seen the finish there on television, it looks super steep, it looks brutal to be honest," said Vingegaard.

The race concludes on Sunday with a flat run into Madrid, with security ramped up because of large anticipated pro-Palestinian protests.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST