Groves ecstatic but also glad everyone stayed upright: "It was so dangerous"

"It was quite a day," the day's winner began his flash interview. "The stage started off dry, but as we approached the finish, it got wetter and wetter. That made it dangerous," he said, referring to the soaking wet roads in Cantabria.

Alpecin-Deceuninck had to work hard all day. "They were so strong," concluded the team leader. "I think everyone had a great day. We controlled the race together with dsm-firmenich PostNL and Equipo Kern Pharma, but we only caught the last breakaway riders in the final kilometers. I really have a great team." With his victory, Groves also picked up a lot of points: he now has 222, compared to the 106 of second-placed Pavel Bittner.

"We had anticipated that there would be attacks in the final phase. There are so few sprint stages in this race, so the riders have to try on days like this," said Groves, who is no longer thinking about Thursday's stage. "This was my last chance in this Vuelta. I'm very happy that I could repay my teammates in this way for the work they have done."

Lead-out Edward Planckaert was also ecstatic. "It was madness in the last few hundred meters. It was slightly downhill, and we really had to take that last corner on the limit," said the Belgian. "We knew that guys like Mauro Schmid and Victor Campenaerts would try something in the finale, but we kept Maurice Ballerstedt on stand-by for that. He did a great job, and our plan succeeded perfectly."