00:00Hello everybody, welcome to stage eight and come with me.
00:07After two days in the mountains and three straight wins for UAE, it's over to the sprinters
00:11on stage eight.
00:13Mads Pedersen increased his lead in green yesterday, but he and little Trek are still
00:17chasing that elusive stage win.
00:20I'm not doing a bike race to finish second, so of course I'm here to try to win the race
00:26today.
00:27It's always nice to see the last three k's before you have to do them again.
00:31Of course we have all the tools now with VeloViewer and so on to see the finals, but it's nice
00:35to see it at least once before we have to go full sprinting.
00:39The down will have to get the better of the two sprinters who have already won at this
00:42Vuelta, Jasper Philipsen and Ben Turner.
00:45Vuelta is a super nice race and Grand Tour stage win would always be a nice goal to have
00:54and a great achievement to have and that's what we are trying to aim for today.
01:01It was nice to win the last one, but today is a new day and it's more of a traditional
01:07sprint than the last one we saw, but we'll give it a go.
01:13Zaragoza hosts a stage finish of La Vuelta for the 50th time today.
01:17Two years ago Movistar's Orluis Aular was inside the top 10.
01:22Yeah, I'm really happy.
01:25We came this way in 2023.
01:28I'm happy to be here on La Vuelta and to be arriving in Zaragoza today.
01:33We are motivated and we are hoping for a good day.
01:40Today's stage is 163.5 km without any climbs or major difficulties.
01:49The intermediate sprint comes just over 40k from the finish and it should act as a warm
01:54up for the main event.
01:55The wind is the only thing that might prevent us from having a normal bunch sprint.
02:01Well, there was a much more relaxed start to the day's action and a chance for most of
02:07the peloton to recharge their batteries after a couple of intense days in the mountains.
02:12Only three men in the breakaway, all of them Spanish.
02:15Sergio Cimitier of Cofidis is the local star and even went through his hometown of Barbastro
02:20at Kilometre 11, a nice early birthday present before turning 30 tomorrow.
02:26He was joined by two riders from the wildcard teams, Jose Luis Faura in the purple of Burgos,
02:31a Grand Tour debutante, and Joanne Bowe in the white and green of Caja Rural.
02:35This is Vuelta number four for the man who wore the polka dot jersey for one day back in
02:392022.
02:43The leading trio were given a maximum gap of around four minutes, with the average speed
02:47creeping up to 40km an hour.
02:50After three wins in three days, UAE are up to 76 for the season.
02:55That puts them just nine short of the all-time record of 85 set by Colombia HTC in 2009, and
03:01that also included three in a row at La Vuelta.
03:08The peloton keeping the gap steady at around three and a half minutes, with Bahrain victorious
03:13up towards the front with their race leader Torstein Train.
03:16In front of them, Alpecin de Koenig, Israel Premier Tech and Lidl Trek were sharing the
03:20pacing duties.
03:23Slowly but surely, the bunch began to reel the three escapees back in, the urgency increasing
03:28as they approached Zaragoza.
03:30The peloton finally hitting speeds of over 50km an hour, as they got set for the intermediate
03:35sprint in Peñaflor, with the gap dropping to around two minutes.
03:41The breakaway riders had no particular interest in the green jersey points, but the would still
03:46be 13 and 10 available for the next two men over the line from the peloton.
03:51Mads Pedersen once again helping himself, ahead of Ethan Vernon.
03:55Mads Pedersen is going to pick up the 13 points.
04:00The riders were soon making their way into Zaragoza for one lap of the final circuit.
04:05That meant the sprinters and their lead-out men would get a first look at the finish line.
04:10It was only a matter of time for the breakaway, who now led by just 30 seconds.
04:16Faura even decided to call it a day before they went over the line, and Cimitier and Bou would
04:21soon be swallowed up as well.
04:25The two riders there caught by the peloton, Cimitier and Joan Bou are caught, it's all
04:31back together and heading for a bunch sprint.
04:35The peloton really upping the tempo on these wide roads around Zaragoza.
04:39The sprint zone was extended today until 5km to go, but even so, GC teams like Visma Lisabike
04:45were fighting at the front to avoid any crashes or mishaps.
04:49They eventually moved aside though, to let the fast men take centre stage.
04:52Here's Matz Pedersen who's trying to get through, the sprint is already starting to come, Brian
05:02Karkar trying to move forward, Elio Viviani has got his nose in the front, he's coming
05:07to the line, is it going to be Viviani, it's going to be a throw to the line, a photo finish,
05:12Philipsen throws his hand in the air, he believes he's got it, but what a close finish in Zaragoza.
05:18Alpesin de Koenig only have 16 wins this year to UAE 76, but they include stages of all three
05:26Grand Tours plus two monuments. Philipsen left it late today, but once again showed he is the
05:31fastest man in town, taking his second victory of the race and his fifth of the season.
05:36Did everything go as you wanted today?
05:39Yeah, we won, so then we cannot complain. Every Grand Tour win is always a special one,
05:46and it's never easy. You suffer a lot of days in the mountains to get here. From now on it's also
05:54going to be a tough Vuelta, but with two wins it always makes it a bit more easy.
06:01Philipsen taking the day with both Viviani and Karkar relegated for an irregular sprint.
06:06That pushed Werner and Marit up to second and third, with Pedersen finally inside the top ten.
06:11Torstein Traijn stayed out of trouble today and leads the race by two minutes and 33 seconds from Jonas Wingergaard.
06:17Pedersen could only manage ninth on the stage, but his efforts at the intermediate sprint means that he
06:25holds green by nine points from Werner and 15 from Philipsen. No climbs today, so Jay Vine is still in polka dots.
06:31He and Juan Ayuso even sat up in the final to lose more time overall.
06:37And Julio Pellizzari remains 27 seconds clear of Matthew Riccitello at the top of the youth classification.
06:43The long first week concludes tomorrow with a summit finish on Valdes Karai.
06:47Join us for that on Sunday and thanks for watching.
