Lights

Comments

Vuelta a España stage 5 report: Groves doubles up ahead of a surprising Ganna

Alpecin-Deceuninck gives Groves a textbook lead-out en route to his second straight Vuelta stage win.

Kaden Groves wins stage 5 of the Vuelta a España.

Dane Cash
by Dane Cash 30.08.2023 Photography by
Cor Vos
More from Dane +

Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sprinted to his second straight Vuelta a España stage win on Wednesday’s stage 5 into Burriana. The Australian speedster narrowly held off Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), with Dries Van Gestel (TotalEnergies) taking third.

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) finished safely on the day to retain the race leader’s red jersey, and in fact he padded his advantage with a few bonus seconds from the day’s intermediate sprint.

Brief results

Loading...

Quote of the day

Kaden Groves had every reason to be pleased with the outcome after a stage that saw his team deliver him perfectly to victory even despite some trickiness in the finale.

My team was fantastic again. We had a crash, we lost two guys in the roundabout with around two and a half to go, but luckily my lead-out men were still there and we could get organized for the final.

Brief analysis

Social round-up

Filippo Ganna wasn’t a pre-stage favorite, but he had a chance and he went for it on stage 5.

TV commentators weren’t entirely certain at first that Groves had indeed won a very close sprint, but his teammate celebrating a few riders back had no doubts.

Up next

After two days for the sprinters, the climbers will come back to the fore at the Vuelta a España on a stage that will culminate in a climb that cannot be underestimated. The ominously named Pico del Buitre (the Beak of the Vulture) stretches 10.9 km at an average gradient of about 8 percent. A lengthy stretch in the double digits in the second half of the ascent will be a great place to go on the attack. The stage favorites include some obvious names: Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič of Jumbo-Visma and race leader Remco Evenepoel.

Did we do a good job with this story?