The Vuelta a España doesn’t usually start with marble palaces and Baroque courtyards, but this year it does. The peloton rolled out of Turin’s Reggia di Venaria on Saturday, past fountains and frescoes, before settling into a 186-kilometer flat run to Novara—a stage designed with sprinters in mind and delivered on cue.
Six riders wasted no time in breaking clear, but their leash was short. The most ambitious move came from Hugo de la Calle of Burgos-BH, who turned a routine day into something more dramatic with a long, lonely bid that finally ended 38 kilometers from the line. It earned him the day’s combativity prize and a few minutes of TV glory, which—let’s be honest—is the point for teams like his.
From there the script tightened: one early climb (snapped up by Alessandro Verre for the mountains jersey), general classification favorites tucked away in the middle, and the sprinters’ teams revving their lead-out trains.
The finale was pure Philipsen. Alpecin–Deceuninck delivered him to the front at precisely the right moment, and the Belgian fired from 175 meters out. Ethan Vernon (Israel–Premier Tech) came closest, Orluis Aular (Movistar) snagged third, but nobody had Philipsen’s finishing speed. He not only won the stage, but he also pulled on the first red jersey of the race, showing remarkable resiliency after the crash that wrecked his Tour de France in July.
For the GC names—Vingegaard, Ayuso, Almeida—Saturday was about staying upright and invisible. Their turn comes quickly: tomorrow’s Stage 2 finishes atop Limone Piemonte, where the real fight for the Vuelta begins.
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