Groves sprints to stage win as O’Connor stays in red

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Groves sprints to stage win as O’Connor stays in red

Kaden Groves outsprinted Wout van Aert to win Stage 14 of the Vuelta a Espana on Saturday, the ***********’s second victory of this year’s race.

It was a fine day for Australia as his compatriot Ben O’Connor also maintained his overall lead.

The longest stage of the race, a 200.5km ride from Villafranca Del Bierzo to Villablino, came down to a bunch sprint, and it was the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider who held off Van Aert.

New Zealand’s Corbin Strong (*******-Premier Tech) came in third, making it a repeat of stage two, when Groves had edged out Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) for the win.

“I didn’t actually expect today to be a sprint as it was, but Visma controlled it and to have a man-on-man sprint against Wout is pretty awesome,” said Groves, who has six career wins in the Spanish Grand Tour.

“Today I didn’t hesitate, I think I did a really good sprint. It felt like a drag race against Wout but it was great to beat him.”

O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) retained the red leader’s jersey and a gap of 1min 21sec over Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), a three-time Vuelta winner.

Roglic had a mechanical issue in the closing stages, needing to take the bike of teammate Daniel Martinez, but he managed to make it back in time for the finish.

It gives the *********** a bit of breathig space as Roglic has reduced his lead over recent stages, cutting it from nearly five minutes after making more gains on Friday’s mountain stage.

An early six-rider breakaway group was kept under control by the peloton, and they were reeled in on the final climb to set up the sprint finish.

Sunday could be an important day in the three-week race. Riders face a mountainous 143km trek over three peaks to a special-category summit finish on top of Cuitu Negru.

The race finishes in Madrid on Sunday September 8.

With AP

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