It was a relatively quiet day out on stage 8 of the Vuelta a España as the peloton raced through Spain's Aragon region, inevitably culminating in a chaotic bunch sprint won by Jasper Philipsen, who took his 15th Grand Tour stage win in Zaragoza.
As is so often the case on a relaxed so-called 'transition stage', the bunch gallop was particularly fraught, harder to control and more dangerous in the more populated pack. After the stage, two riders were relegated, with Lotto's Elia Viviani losing the runner-up finish his team had worked so hard for, and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) following the Italian's irregular lead, resulting in his own relegation from sixth to the back of the group.
With the GC contenders taking a day off (another one), Torstein Træen held onto his two-minute-33-second lead over Jonas Vingegaard, with a Cat.1 summit finish to come on Sunday.
[race_result id=23 stage_id=86352 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]
[race_result id=23 stage_id=86352 count=10 gc=10 year=2025]
How it happened
- A three-man, all-Spanish breakaway of Joan Bou (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Sergio Samitier (Cofidis) and José Luis Faura (Burgos Burpellet BH) led the way through the northeastern Aragon region from Monzón Templario to Zaragoza.
- The trio held an advantage into the finishing circuit, with Bou and Samitier holding the peloton off until 17 km to go.
- Visma-Lease a Bike set the pace for much of the run-in from there, at least until 5km to go where the sprint safety zone began.
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