Green jersey Kaden Groves escapes injury in Vuelta a España stage 19 crash

The Vuelta a España green jersey Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) avoided injury after being involved in a crash during the final kilometre of stage 19 on Friday.

The Australian was the main favourite for the stage - won by Alberto Dainese (dsm-firmenich) - but came off his bike late in the race after riders crashed in front of him.

Read more: Vuelta a España stage 19: Alberto Dainese narrowly beats Filippo Ganna in sprint

Despite the high speed in the peloton on the long, straight road into Íscar, Groves managed to avoid actually hitting the ground, instead having to jump off his bike but landing on his feet and walking away from the crash.

"I’m okay. I managed to step off the bike and not hit the ground, so that's okay on my end,” he said after the stage, where he appeared free of any discomfort or pain.

“I'm not sure how the crash happened, I haven’t seen it. I believe there was just a touch of wheels or handlebars on the front and it involved my teammate Tobias Bayer and some DSM riders. Unfortunately really bad timing, but I also hope they’re okay.”

Groves, who won back-to-back sprints on stages 4 and 5, is close to but has not mathematically secured the green jersey - a win on Friday would have made his lead over Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) almost unassailable heading towards Madrid.

Read more: The jerseys of the Vuelta a España explained

Instead, the four-time Grand Tour stage winner - who did take second at the intermediate sprint - will have to wait for his jersey win to be confirmed. If he does take home the green jersey in Madrid, he will become the first Australian rider to do so.

“I still got some points in the intermediate,” he said. “It’s really unfortunate to not sprint today, but it’s the risk we take when we are missing some guys in the lead-out. Sometimes you have to take the sprint from within the bunch, and today we did that. Unfortunately, I was behind the crash."

Groves has been two men down for the last week after Sam Gaze and Robbe Ghys abandoned earlier in the race.

However, the 24-year-old was lucky to come off as lightly as he did in a crash that saw the dsm-firmenich riders involved arrive bloodied and bruised into the finish. This means he is one day closer to finishing this Vuelta wearing green, and uninjured heading towards one final sprint chance in the capital.

“We’ll have to see but all in all I’m really proud of my team and happy to be in green,” he had said prior to the stage. “But hopefully still in green in Madrid.”

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