The first road race stage of the Vuelta going the way of Jasper Philipsen of Belgium after winning a sprint finish against Fabio Jacobsen and Michael Matthews who completed the podium. As was expected a carefully planned out race was needed to win this one despite the topography of the course being fairly flat, the mercury was breaking the glass with temperatures hitting the 30 degrees Celsius. Check out the brave paddling on the downhill sprint with 16 km to the finish. Question is it wise to paddle as you go downhill? Yes it is but you need to maintain focus , sitting position.You can also increase speed by not paddling just by pressing you elbows on the handle bars if you not comfortable with continuing paddling. DO NOT APPLY THE BREAKS suddenly but in gently if you want to reduce speed.

Primoz Roglic will be relieved to retain the overall lead after this one as Spaniard Alex Aranburu shaved his lead by getting points in the intermediate sprints but finished fifth which was not enough to unseat the Slovenian. 166.7 km was not the longest we will see in the Vuelta in the coming weeks but there was still drama. With 4km to go Brits Adam Yates and Hugh Carthy crashed resulting in them losing some points in the GC race. The organizers did not award them the same finish time as the winner. Roglic was involved in that crash but made it safely to finish in the peloton.