KADEN GROVES won a thrilling sprint finish to take the 17th stage of the Vuelta a Espana as Australians dominated a rain-drenched day of racing through northern Spain on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Eddie Dunbar was 40th while fellow Irish cyclist Darren Rafferty finished 67th.
Team Jayco–AlUla star Dunbar is 14th in the general classification and Rafferty is 67th.
Groves’ fellow Australian Ben O’Connor of the Decathlon team held the overall race lead with a five-second advantage on Slovenian three-time champion Primoz Roglic.
A third Australian Jay Vine of UAE Team Emirates held on to the polka-dot jersey for the best climber.
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Groves, riding for the Alpecin Deceuninck team, pipped Czech Pavel Bittner of DSM with Belgian Vito Braet of Intermarche-Wanty third after the 142km run from Arnuero to Santander.
For Groves, it was his third stage win in this year’s race and seventh on the Vuelta.
With Belgian Wout Van Aert out of the race after suffering a painful knee injury on Tuesday, Groves is the favourite for the top sprinters’ green jersey.
“It was quite a tough day, starting dry and then the majority of the finish wet,” Groves told Eurosport at the finish.
“It made it quite dangerous out there. My team were so strong. They had a really super day. To repay them with win number three is pretty special.”
Four riders had led the peloton for a long time, but Frenchmen Thomas Champion and Thibault Guernalec, Dane Jonas Gregaard and Spaniard Xavier Isasa were caught three kilometres from the line.
The fight for the leader’s red jersey remains tight with O’Connor only five seconds ahead of Roglic with Spaniard Enric Mas third at 1min 25sec and Ecuadorian Richard Carapaez fourth at 1:46.
“Tomorrow, even if we’re talking about a transition stage again, we will surely have to control the race more because of probable breakaways but the final suits me rather well,” said O’Connor.
Thursday’s 18th stage heads east towards the Basque country for a medium mountain stage covering 179.5km to Maeztu before the decisive mountain top finishes on Friday and Saturday and the final time-trial in Madrid on Sunday.
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Aussies reign in rainy Spain as Groves wins Vuelta stage, O'Connor holds lead
KADEN GROVES won a thrilling sprint finish to take the 17th stage of the Vuelta a Espana as Australians dominated a rain-drenched day of racing through northern Spain on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Eddie Dunbar was 40th while fellow Irish cyclist Darren Rafferty finished 67th.
Team Jayco–AlUla star Dunbar is 14th in the general classification and Rafferty is 67th.
Groves’ fellow Australian Ben O’Connor of the Decathlon team held the overall race lead with a five-second advantage on Slovenian three-time champion Primoz Roglic.
A third Australian Jay Vine of UAE Team Emirates held on to the polka-dot jersey for the best climber.
Groves, riding for the Alpecin Deceuninck team, pipped Czech Pavel Bittner of DSM with Belgian Vito Braet of Intermarche-Wanty third after the 142km run from Arnuero to Santander.
For Groves, it was his third stage win in this year’s race and seventh on the Vuelta.
With Belgian Wout Van Aert out of the race after suffering a painful knee injury on Tuesday, Groves is the favourite for the top sprinters’ green jersey.
“It was quite a tough day, starting dry and then the majority of the finish wet,” Groves told Eurosport at the finish.
“It made it quite dangerous out there. My team were so strong. They had a really super day. To repay them with win number three is pretty special.”
Four riders had led the peloton for a long time, but Frenchmen Thomas Champion and Thibault Guernalec, Dane Jonas Gregaard and Spaniard Xavier Isasa were caught three kilometres from the line.
The fight for the leader’s red jersey remains tight with O’Connor only five seconds ahead of Roglic with Spaniard Enric Mas third at 1min 25sec and Ecuadorian Richard Carapaez fourth at 1:46.
“Tomorrow, even if we’re talking about a transition stage again, we will surely have to control the race more because of probable breakaways but the final suits me rather well,” said O’Connor.
Thursday’s 18th stage heads east towards the Basque country for a medium mountain stage covering 179.5km to Maeztu before the decisive mountain top finishes on Friday and Saturday and the final time-trial in Madrid on Sunday.
You can view the results in full here.
– – © AFP 2024. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Richard Carapaz’s nationality as Colombian; Carapaz is Ecuadorian.
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as it stands Ben O'Connor cycing Jay Vine kaden groves vuelta