Just 24 hours after he inherited the Vuelta a España points classification lead when Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) crashed out, Australian sprinter Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) boosted his advantage in that classification to the maximum by netting his third stage win of the 2024 race.
For Groves and the other fast men in the 2024 Vuelta a España, there were no more sprint stages on offer after Wednesday’s hilly, waterlogged run to Santander. There was a distinct air of now-or-never as the rain teemed down in the northern region of Cantabria and a four-man break did their utmost to outwit the peloton.
Finally caught almost within sight of the finish line in the coastal city of Santander, Groves then quickly lived up to his status as an overwhelming sprint favourite to round out a Vuelta a España where he had already won at the very first opportunity on stage 2 in Ourem and another triumph in the last chance-saloon in Santander on stage 17.
The final challenge for Groves in the 2024 Vuelta is something of an unexpected one - to make it to Madrid in green. The Australian inherited the points lead after Van Aert crashed out on Tuesday, but as he told reporters on Wednesday, while in no way wishing that sort of fortune on his arch-rival, “every day there has to be a winner and every day somebody has to wear the jerseys".
“I heard he’d abandoned and it was a strange situation to inherit the points classification,” the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider said. “But thankfully he had no fractures and I wish him a quick recovery.
“Remaining second in the points classification was a goal for me in case anything happened - he could have got sick and withdrawn. So I took green but that’s professional sport, every day there has to be a winner and every day somebody has to wear the jerseys.”
Asked if he needed a win to make him feel the green jersey was rightfully his, Groves replied, “I guess it helps, for sure. It was my last opportunity here at this year’s race, I had a super motivated team, they did so well to control the break at the start and make sure the composition of the break was correct. To repay them with win number three is pretty special.”
Apart from equalling Van Aert’s score of three stage victories - the most of any rider in the 2024 Vuelta - Groves has now taken no less than seven Grand Tour stage wins in his career.
Equally impressive this summer, he has won a stage in each of the three weeks in the 2024 Vuelta - on stage 2, stage 14 and stage 17 - and each in slightly different terrain, too. Ourem in Portugal on stage 2 was an uphill, technical drag, stage 14 in Villablino came immediately after a very long, grinding category 1 climb and fast drop to the finish, and stage 17 came after two tough category 2 ascents early on, then a fast, rainsoaked descent to the coast at Santander.
Thanks to that versatility, consistency and pure speed, Groves has stacked up more and more points for the green jersey. His current 222-point total, compared to 106 for closest rival Pavel Bittner (DSM-firmenich-PostNL), puts him in a strong position to repeat his 2023 victory in the same classification.
“Today was all for the stage victory and then tomorrow [Thursday] I’ll be working to see if I can help a teammate like Xandro [Meurisse] or Quinten [Hermans] to get in the break,” he said.
“After that it’s all about survival, doing the bare minimum and just getting through. I’ve actually been lucky because stage 19 is a good day for the gruppetto and most of the hardest days are behind us. Then for me, personally, stage 20 will be the last ‘war and survival’ day of the 2024 race.”
Even though the green was far out of reach before Van Aert abandoned, Groves had always said that there had never been any question of his quitting after the cut-and-dried sprint stages in the first two weeks of the 2024 Vuelta - his best opportunities to win - had been completed.
“I’d always kept an eye on today and tomorrow to help the team,” he explained. “And when there are stages this late in the race when we can achieve something, for sure it’s a goal to get through to the end and finish the season off well with the last races of the year, too,” he explained.
“After this, I won't be finished for 2024. I’ll be doing the Italian one-day races, because they suit me with their reduced bunch sprints and more aggressive racing.”
While Groves looks to be by far the strongest candidate for green in Madrid, the battle for red, currently held by another Australian, remains far more undecided. However, Groves believes that the definitive GC will be all but established before the final weekend of racing.
“I’m not sure who’ll win but I think we’ll know after stage 19,” he said.
“As there’s a TT in Madrid I’m going to say Primož Roglič [will win]. But as an Australian, I hope my fellow Aussie Ben-O [Ben O’Connor, current race leader - Ed.] can stand on the podium too.”
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