Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sprinted to his third career Grand Tour stage win on Tuesday’s stage 4 of the Vuelta a España. The 24-year-old Australian bested Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates) and Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek) in a chaotic sprint in Tarragona.
The stage saw two crashes in the last few kilometers, but the major GC favorites finished safely on the day, with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) maintaining his overall race lead.
- The sprinters had their chance to shine on stage 4 of the Vuelta a España, with the peloton invested in keeping the day’s three-rider breakaway at a manageable distance. The Ineos Grenadiers, for whatever reason, were among the teams setting the pace at the front.
- The break was caught with around 20 km to go, and then the sprinters’ teams started to gear up for the position battle. Ineos continued to set the pace into the last few kilometers. A crash at around 4 km to go took would-be contender Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) out of the equation.
- Alpecin-Deceuninck and EF Education-EasyPost had riders in good position going under the flamme rouge, but another crash in one of the many twists and turns in the finale took EF’s Marijn van den Berg out of the battle. With a little more than 300 meters to go, Molano hit the front and tried to hold on through a pair of late corners as Groves tried to close the gap.
- After initially looking around to see if there was anyone else who might be in the mix, Groves decided to go all in behind Molano. With 100 meters to go, Groves surged past and took the win as Molano settled for second with a look of frustration.
- The victory is Groves’s second Grand Tour stage win of the year after he won a stage at the Giro d’Italia, and it’s his second career Vuelta stage win as well after he triumphed on a stage in last year’s race. It’s also his third win in the Catalonia region just this year: He won two stages of the Volta a Catalunya back in March.
Brief results
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Quotes of the day
“Sebas [Juan Sebastián Molano] went full from the bottom with 350 meters to go and I was luckily patient enough and strong enough to close the gap with around 100 meters to go,” Groves said after his victory.
“I was confident I could pass him because he led out from very early. On a finish like that, which is super tough and long, I thought he would have to be on a really good day to beat me.”
Up next
Stage 5 could be another day for the fast finishers, with a late second-category climb to tackle but a mostly flat run-in to the line. It’s not a guarantee for the sprinters (it never is at the Vuelta) but the likes of Groves, Coquard, and Molano will again be the pre-stage favorites.
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