Jasper Philipsen wins sprint finish on opening stage of Spanish Vuelta

NOVARA, Italy (AP) — Jasper Philipsen won a sprint finish on the opening stage in Italy of the Spanish Vuelta on Saturday, as title favorite Jonas Vingegaard finished safely in the pack.

Belgian sprinter Philipsen powered to the line after being launched by his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates. He finished the 186-kilometer (115-mile) stage from Turin to Novara in the Piedmont region in 4 hours, 9 minutes, 12 seconds.

It was the 27-year-old’s fourth career win at a Vuelta — to go with 10 stage wins at the Tour de France.

Philipsen was followed by Ethan Vernon in second and Orluis Aular in third.

Philipsen also won the opening stage of the Tour de France in July. He crashed out of the race two days later.

“After my crash in the Tour I was really disappointed to be out. It was a setback and you have to find new goals,” he said. “And this was a nice goal because I knew that we only had one chance since there were not many opportunities for sprinters like me at this Vuelta.”

The first stage was just one of four flat stages during the three-week race that will feature several summit finishes on Spain’s mountains.

Philipsen will wear the Vuelta’s red leader’s jersey on Sunday for a 160-kilometer (100-mile) flat stage with an uphill finish at Limone Piemonte.

The race stays in Italy until crossing into France on Stage 4. It then shifts to Spain, where it will completely be held in the country’s northern half. Spain is just recovering from a brutal heat wave that fueled massive wildfires,

Vingegaard, a two-time Tour winner, is favored to win his first Vuelta after top rival Tadej Pogačar and four-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic both opted to skip the race.

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test-firing of two types of new antiair missiles, state media said Sunday, displaying his expanding military capabilities as the South Korean and U.S. militaries carry out joint drills.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the test Saturday proved the missiles effective in countering aerial threats such as drones and cruise missiles, and that Kim assigned unspecified “important” tasks to defense scientists ahead of a major political conference expected early next year.

The report did not specify the missiles that were tested or where the event took place. It did not mention any remarks by Kim directed at Washington or Seoul.

The test coincided with new South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ’s trip to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, where they vowed to strengthen bilateral cooperation and their trilateral partnership with the United States to address common challenges, including North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Lee was to depart for Washington on Sunday for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kim’s government has repeatedly dismissed calls by Seoul and Washington to restart long-stalled negotiations aimed at winding down his nuclear weapons and missiles programs, as he continues to prioritize Russia as part of a foreign policy aimed at expanding ties with nations confronting the United States.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kim has sent thousands of troops and large shipments of weapons, including artillery and ballistic missiles, to help fuel President Vladimir Putin’s warfighting.

That has raised concerns Moscow could provide technology that strengthens Kim’s nuclear-armed military, with experts pointing to North Korea’s aging antiair and radar systems as a likely area of cooperation. South Korea’s previous conservative government said in November that Russia supplied missiles and other equipment to help strengthen air defenses of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, but did not specify which systems were provided. Kim held a ceremony in Pyongyang last week to honor North Korean soldiers who fought in Ukraine, awarding state “hero” titles to those who returned and placing medals beside 101 portraits of the fallen, praising them as “great men, great heroes and great patriots,” state media reported. According to South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent around 15,000 troops to Russia since last fall and about 600 of them have died in combat. Kim has also agreed to send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to Russia’s Kursk region, a deployment South Korean intelligence believes could happen soon.