Kaden Groves outsprinted Wout van Aert to win Stage 14 of the Vuelta a Espana on Saturday, the Australian’s second victory of this year’s race as his compatriot Ben O’Connor maintained his overall lead.
The longest stage of the race, a 200.5km ride from Villafranca Del Bierzo to Villablino, came down to a bunch sprint, and it was the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider who held off Van Aert who was looking for his fourth stage win.
New Zealand's Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) came in third, making it a repeat of stage two, when Groves had held off Van Aert for the win.
Eddie Dunbar (Jayco Alula) finished 41st and Darren Rafferty (EF Education-Easypost) wasn’t far behind, crossing the line in 59th. Dunbar maintained his 18th position in the general ranking while Rafferty’s Saturday result saw him jump three spots to 81st.
“I didn’t actually expect today to be a sprint as it was but Visma controlled it and to have a man on man sprint against Wout is pretty awesome,” Groves said after his stage win.
“Today I didn’t hesitate, I think I did a really good sprint. It felt like a drag race against Wout but it was great to beat him.”
O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) retained the red leader’s jersey, with a gap of one minute 21 seconds over Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
Roglic had a mechanical issue in the closing stages, needing to take the bike of teammate Daniel Martinez, but he managed to make it back in time for the finish.
An early six-rider breakaway group was kept under control by the peloton, and they were reeled in on the final climb to set up the sprint finish.
Sunday’s Stage 15 is a 143km ride from Infiesto to Valgrande-Pajares. – Reuters
