Groves charges at "unexpected" sprint opportunity with top favorite Van Aert: "Felt like a drag race"

Kaden Groves has scored for the second time in the Vuelta a España. The Alpecin-Deceunincksprinter survived the first-category climb in the finale and defeated Wout van Aert in a sprint uphill. "It feels really good," Groves said in the flash interview about beating the acclaimed favorite.

It has been a while since Groves was allowed to cheer again. After all, his first victory came on day two. He had to settle for second and third place in two subsequent sprint events. That Groves got a chance to sprint for the win on Saturday, he had not expected because of the course. "I didn't expect a sprint like this, but Visma controlled it. To then sprint head-to-head against Wout is insane."

Groves survived a first-category climb in the finale. Although it was over 20 kilometers long, the mild gradients allowed him to survive. "I was afraid they would attack there. Fortunately, Visma rushed very fast, so no one thought of attacking. Furthermore, my teammates also managed to survive. So we could control it until the finish," Groves saw the final go perfectly according to plan.

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Groves put in perfect position by Planckaert

"The team did it perfectly," Groves, when asked, described the final kilometer. "Edward (Planckaert, ed.) did a perfect lead-out, just like in Seville. This time, I didn't hesitate. I think I did an excellent sprint. It felt a bit like a drag race against Wout, but it was enough to beat him in the end." Overall, it is already Groves' sixth stage win in the Vuelta. The Spanish roads suit him well. "That's very nice, of course. I love racing here. It's good to see the hard work paying off."

Planckaert has already received compliments from Groves, and the Belgian also got a brief mention at Eurosport. "We saw that Visma wanted to control for a sprint. So we went from there and tried to survive the finale, then do a good lead-out. After the climb and descent, only four flat kilometers were left, so we had to time it well. That wasn't easy, but in the end, we executed it perfectly. And Kaden then finished i