Groves navigates crash, late chase on the way to Giro d'Italia stage victory

Kaden Groves celebrates with Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates after winning stage 5 at the Giro d'Italia
Kaden Groves celebrates with Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates after winning stage 5 at the Giro d'Italia (Image credit: Getty Images)

Neither falling in the first of multiple crashes nor the frantic chase to regain contact with the front group that followed could keep an ultra-determined Kaden Groves from capturing a long-sought first stage of the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday.

Groves was one of multiple fallers in a mass pileup with seven kilometres to go, sparked, he said, by the combined effect of "a sprint finish and tight corners where we were all going too fast.”

Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.