Jasper Philipsen claimed the second stage of the Vuelta a España in a sprint finish ©Getty Images

Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen claimed his second Grand Tour stage win after prevailing in a sprint finish at the Vuelta a España.

The Alpecin-Fenix rider won the second stage narrowly from Deceuninck-Quick Step's Fabio Jakobsen of The Netherlands with third place going to Australia’s Michael Matthews of Team BikeExchange.

Three Spanish riders broke clear at the start of the stage - Diego Rubio of Burgos-BH, Sergio Martin of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA and Xabier Mikel Azparren of Euskaltel-Euskadi.

On a windy day, which saw the riders take a 166.7km route from Caleruega to Gamonal, the breakaway’s advantage over the peloton went up and down throughout the day.

Rubio made a solo bid for victory with 35 kilometres to go, before being caught with just over 20km left on the stage.

Primož Roglič retained the race leader's red jersey heading into the first summit finish of the Vuelta, scheduled to take place tomorrow ©Getty Images
Primož Roglič retained the race leader's red jersey heading into the first summit finish of the Vuelta, scheduled to take place tomorrow ©Getty Images

Philipsen won by around a wheel’s length in a time of 3hrs 58 mins 57secs, and as well as taking the stage victory he also took the lead of the points classification.

Slovenia’s Primož Roglič of Team Jumbo-Visma, who is attempting to win the Grand Tour for a third straight year, finished safely in the peloton to retain the leader’s red jersey, which he claimed after winning yesterday's time trial in Burgos.

In the overall classification, Roglič leads by four seconds from Alex Aranburu of Spain, who is riding for Astana-Premier Tech, with Matthews in third overall at 10 seconds behind.

Roglič will be hopeful of extending his overall lead tomorrow during the third stage, which sees the first scheduled summit finish of the race at the end of a 202.8km mountainous stage from Santo Domingo de Silos to the top of the Picón Blanco.