When 1<p<∞, maps f in W1/p,p((0,1);S1) have 17a7ecd7b311" title="Click to view the MathML source">W1/p,p phases φ , but the 17a7ecd7b311" title="Click to view the MathML source">W1/p,p-seminorm of φ is not controlled by the one of f . Lack of control is illustrated by “the kink”: f=eıφ, where the phase φ moves quickly from 0 to 2π . A similar situation occurs for maps f:S1→S1, with Moebius maps playing the role of kinks. We prove that this is the only loss of control mechanism: each map f:S1→S1 satisfying can be written as , where Maj is a Moebius map vanishing at aj∈D, while the integer K=K(f) and the phase ψ are controlled by M . In particular, we have for some cp. When p=2, we obtain the sharp value of c2, which is c2=1/(4π2). As an application, we obtain the existence of minimal maps of degree one in a708d7aa5854" title="Click to view the MathML source">W1/p,p(S1;S1) with p∈(2−ε,2).