Kaden Groves won stage 17 of the Vuelta a España on Wednesday as his Alpecin-Deceuninck team cannily chased down a few late attackers and then set him up to sprint for the victory in Santander.
On a rain-soaked finishing straight, Groves convincingly bested Pavel Bittner (DSM Firmenich-PostNL) and Vito Braet (Intermarché-Wanty) to claim his third stage win of this Vuelta and the seventh Vuelta stage win of his career. The win also extended his lead in the points classification, which he took over on Tuesday after Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) crashed out of the Vuelta.
Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) finished safely in the bunch to retain his race lead for another day.
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How it happened
- With a flat finish on tap for stage 17, there was less interest in getting up the road than we have seen on the last several days of the race. Four riders ultimately went clear as the rain started to fall, and the peloton let the gap grow to about four minutes before tightening the leash. Things slowly but surely started to come back together from there.
- Once the peloton had closed to within a minute of the escapees and it started to become clear that a catch would be made, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) attempted a solo move out of the bunch with around 14 km to go. He was quickly chased down, but the pace then slackened in the peloton for a bit, allowing the three escapees to hold on longer out front.
- The catch was ultimately made with around 3 km to go, but then Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) fired off the front, drawing DSM’s Enzo Leijnse with him. Campenaerts bridged up to make it a new trio out front inside the last 2 km, and suddenly things seemed a bit more uncertain for what had looked like a no-doubt sprint finish.
- As the alarm bells went off in the peloton, Alpecin came to the front and shut down the last-ditch move. The team still had enough firepower to provide Groves with a lead-out man on the finishing straight.
- The Australian launched off of his teammate’s wheel with around 200 meters to go, and no one came particularly close to matching him.
It was quite a tough day, starting dry and then the majority of the finish was wet, so that made it quite dangerous out there.
—Kaden Groves describes a tricky stage 17 of the Vuelta a España
Brief analysis
- Seven of the last eight stages at the race had gone to breakaway winners, but stage 17 finally felt like a more traditional sprint opportunity – and the sort of stage that Van Aert was aiming for when he decided to ride the Vuelta. Van Aert’s departure left one fewer team to help control things on the day, but Alpecin had help from DSM and even Kern Pharma.
- By sending Leijnse with Schmid and having him sit on the Schmid’s wheel, DSM helped to ensure that his move would stall, which seemed like a sound tactical choice to help put Bittner in position to contest the win. It also took just a little bit of the pressure off of Alpecin, however, making it that little bit easier for Groves’ team to shut down the late attack. With numbers in the finale, Alpecin was able to set Groves up for the sprint even despite the chaotic final few minutes of the stage.
- When he did go, Groves was clearly the fastest sprinter on the day, and his stage 17 further added to his points tally. He has more than twice as many points as Bittner in that classification. Barring a crash or some other catastrophe, Groves is practically a lock to take the green jersey through to the final podium presentation in Madrid.
Up next
Stage 18 from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Maeztu-Parque Natural de Izki in the Basque Country is one of the harder days of the Vuelta to predict. The profile could favor the breakaway specialists, with enough up-and-down to drop many of the sprinters and not enough to entice the GC favorites.
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