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It was close at the finish, but Australian Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) hung on in the final dash to the line in the mass bunch kick on the flat to take his second consecutive stage win at the Spanish Grand Tour.
Groves’ main challenge was the big surprise as Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) put in a big sprint than expected from the renowned time triallist but he was not quick enough to pass Groves who had made sure of his win with the bike throw to the line before celebrating. Dries Van Gestel (TotalEnergies) was third in a lot tighter finish than Groves’ stage 4 victory.
“It’s a fantastic feeling,” said Groves. “The second stage of this Vuelta, and two in a row. It’s a great feeling and to do it in this (green) jersey as well.
“It was a hectic finale again today. Similar to yesterday with lots of roundabouts, but not much climbing at all. A factor of wind as well which made it quite nervous, but my team handled it perfectly.
"We had a crash in the roundabout and lost two guys actually. But luckily, my leadout men were there and we could get organised for the sprint.”
The Australian sprinter was the beneficiary of a quieter stage after four days of drama at La Vuelta, taking out the sprint stage win from the bunch finish after a relatively uneventful day in the saddle for the majority of the peloton.
Race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) provided the only action of the sleepy stage in the general classification standings, taking the intermediate bonus sprint to extend his overall advantage by six seconds, with Groves tagging along to collect more points in the green jersey standings to move himself further into the lead of the classification.
A crash at a roundabout inside 3km to go added to the nerves in the peloton and took down two of Groves’s Alpecin-Deceuninck team. His squad came forward with a big surge for Groves in the final 700m, leading all the way into the final 200m, leaving a straightforward, but still a hard assignment for Groves to hold off his rivals.
Ganna made a surge to try to snatch the stage win, but Groves was just quick enough and powered to his second stage victory in a row.
La Vuelta a Espana continues with a summit finish for stage 6 and a chance for the climbers to assert themselves again. Watch from 10.50pm AEST on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand.
