Philipsen bags Top Ten In hectic California finale

Emerging UAE Team Emirates sprinter Jasper Philipsen came through a chaotic sprint finish to finish 10th in the opening stage of the Amgen Tour of California. The stage was won by Peter Sagan of BORA Hansgrohe.

Philipsen, still just 21, opted to follow the wheel of his Dutch rival Fabio Jakobsen but was left frustrated when the Deceuninck-QuickStep fragmented as the front riders moved away to dispute the win.

Philipsen was feeling good and the team did a good job to put him in the front, he was on Jakobsen’s wheel until the penultimate corner but unfortunately the Deceuninck-Quickstep train split and Jasper was left with a gap.

Philipsen: “The team did a really good job to put me in the front. We could see that Deceuninck-QuickStep had a really strong team so I tried to be on Jakobsen’s wheel coming into the finish. Coming into the last few hundred metres he let a gap open and a group of guys rolled off the front and it was already too late to get back.

I’m a little disappointed because I felt great and knew I could have done better; but there are plenty of stages ahead so I’ll hopefully have more chances”.

This result leaves Philipsen 2nd overall in the young rider classification, just three seconds down on Tyler Stites (USA). Pogačar lies 4th in the youth classification and will aim to be active in the hillier stages later in the week.

Stage 1 results:

1 Peter Sagan (SVK) BORA-hansgrohe  3:14:10

2 Travis Mccabe (USA) United States  s.t.

3 Max Walscheid (GER) Team Sunweb  s.t.

10 Jasper Philipsen (BEL) UAE Team Emirates  +4″

General Classification after stage 1:

1 Peter Sagan (SVK) BORA-hansgrohe  3:14:00

2 Travis Mccabe (USA) United States  +4″

3 Max Walscheid (GER) Team Sunweb  +6″

13 Jasper Philipsen (BEL) UAE Team Emirates  +14″