Vuelta a España stage 5: Kaden Groves takes second sprint win

Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) claimed his second victory in two days with a win on stage 5 of the Vuelta a España. The Australian edged out surprise package Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) in a hotly contested bunch sprint in Burriana with Dries Van Gestel (TotalEnergies) taking third.

Groves, who was searching for his fourth Grand Tour stage, benefited from a perfect leadout from his Alpecin-Deceuninck train with several of his teammates still present as the peloton entered the final 1,000m.

The Australian opened his sprint with around 150m to go, charging through the inside and along the barriers as a number of his sprint rivals struggled to get on his wheel. Ganna was forced to accelerate from much further back but the UCI Hour Record holder began to eat into Grove’s advantage as the finish line came into view. In the end Groves had enough in the tank to hold on and celebrate back-to-back wins. 

In the race for the overall standings Remco Evenepoel (Soudal QuickStep) extended his advantage to 11 seconds over Enric Mas (Movistar Team) after the Belgian picked up six bonus seconds at an intermediate sprint with 11km to go. Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) remains in third overall.

“It’s a fantastic feeling. Second stage of this Vuelta and two in a row, it’s a great feeling, especially to do it in the green jersey," Groves said at the line.

"Again, it was another hectic final today. Similar to yesterday with a lot of roundabouts, but not much climbing at all really. But there was the factor of wind as well which made it quite nervous, but my team was fantastic again. We had a crash, we lost two guys actually in a roundabout about two and a half to go. But luckily my lead-out men were still there and we could get organised for the final," the winner added.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Romain Bardet lost over five minutes and dropped from inside the top-ten to 40th overall after being held up in a crash with 3km to go.

Solo mission

After four days of chaotic and breathless action the Vuelta a España settled in for something more akin to siesta on stage 5. After an early flurry of attacks Eric Fagundez (Burgos-BH) jumped clear and set about establishing a lead all of his own.The Uruguayan, making his Grand Tour debut, would spend a solitary 126km off the front of the peloton as a combination of Soudal-QuickStep and the sprinters’ team ensured that the lone leader’s advantage never dabbled above four minutes.

On the only categorised climb of the Collado de Ibola (11.4km at 3.9%) the gap between Fagundez and the bunch was reduced to a closable positon with fellow South American Eduardo Sepulveda (Lotto-Dstny) jumping clear in order to extend his lead in the mountains classification.

The Lotto rider, who was without a contract last winter, took maximum points at the top having gobbled up a tiring Fagundez before the summit but with 38km to go both riders were back in the peloton as the intensity rose and the battle for position began.With an infinite number of roundabouts in the closing kilometres the final was bound to be a fraught affair, and so it proved with a crash inside 3.5km to go, taking down a number of riders.

Before that point Evenepoel had picked up six seconds over his GC rivals with his teammates efficiently controlling the peloton until 2km to go. At that point the sprinters’ teams took form control with Alpecin-Deceuninck and EF Education-Easypost not shy about their desire to lead through the final set of corners. In the end it was Alpecin who won out, posting Groves to the front with two riders inside the final 800m.

Several sprinters found themselves too far back at that point and Groves had a relatively unchallenged sprint to the line. Even a rampaging Ganna couldn’t overhaul the Australian.

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