Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was fastest in the uphill sprint to Ourém and won stage two of the 2024 Vuelta a España.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) led out the sprint with 200 metres to go, but Groves had the power and strength to come round the Belgian in the closing metres. Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) finished third.
Brandon McNulty took the lead in the opening 12km time-trial on Saturday, but Van Aert's six bonus seconds on the line were enough for him to vault over the American into the overall lead of the race.
Groves' last professional victory came at last year's Vuelta. The Australian, who also moves in to the lead of the points competition, was pleased to put a difficult season so far behind him with this win.
"I think it's been a number of reasons. I had an injury in the spring and missed a lot of racing," he said of why he had not been at his best in 2024
"I returned to a really good level for the Giro, but in the end was not fast enough to beat Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) or Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Deceuninck). That kept me really motivated and working hard to come to a race like this, which suits me super well."
Groves knows that opportunities for the fast men are few and far between in this year's race, which has been billed as one of the toughest Grand Tours in years.
"This year's parcours is really quite difficult. So we really only had today and tomorrow and a few opportunities in this first week, so I felt really big pressure to perform today."
how it happened
After being battered by the elements in the opening time-trial, the riders headed inland on stage two on rolling terrain over 194 kilometres from Cascais to Ourém.
Straight from the gun, two Spanish riders made a move off the front to form the day's breakaway. They were Ibon Ruiz (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Luis Angel Maté (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - the former on Grand Tour debut and the latter riding his 18th and final three week race as he prepares for retirement, aged 40.
Early on, the pair took on the first categorised climb of the race, the Alto do Lagoa Azul, the veteran Maté crossing the line first. Their lead stretched out to three-and-a-half minutes as the riders made their way north.
Kaden Groves and Wout van Aert were the big favourites for the stage, and their teams took responsibility on the front of the peloton for much of the day.
Most of the difficulty in the parcours was packed into the final 70 kilometres, which featured several unclassified hills as well as the intermediate sprint and fourth category Alto da Batalha, which topped out at with 18km to go.
Maté took the intermediate sprint in Alcobaça ahead of Ruiz. Groves and Van Aert popped out of the peloton behind in the pursuit of points, with the Australian edging out the Belgian, foreshadowing the finish. The gap to the leading duo was reduced to almost nothing after the sprint and the peloton quickly swept them up with 52km left of the stage.
The following two-dozen kilometres stayed in a holding pattern, with the big teams locked on the front anticipating the Alto de Batalha, which held within it some challenging sections. As the climb began, Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal - Quick-Step) and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) accelerated. Three more riders bridged across; Kevin Geniets, Stefan Küng (both Groupama-FDJ) and Kobe Goosens (Intermarché-Wanty).
The peloton were too keen to keep things together at this point and that move was quickly snuffed out.
Things were crowded going up the Batalha, with hundreds of Portguese fans lining the climb and getting close tot he riders. White jersey Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) crashed mid-way through. He was able to make his way back to the peloton before the finale.
Küng sprinted to take the points at the top of the Batalha, meaning he would be level with Maté in the mountain classification at the end of the day.
The sprinters' teams controlled things on the road into Ourém. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe were also attentive as they looked to keep Primoz Roglič safe in the finale.
With 1.8km to go several riders crashed hard on a fast right-hand bend. Max Poole (dsm-firmenich-PostNL), Jhonatan Narvaez and Josh Tarling (both Ineos Grenadiers) were among those involved.
As the peloton blasted under the one kilometre to go banner, Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike) led the peloton with Van Aert on his wheel and Groves just behind.
Van Aert led out the sprint, but Groves overcame him with power and speed. It was Van Aert's second close miss in two stages, but he takes the maillot rojo of overall leader into stage three.
Results
La Vuelta a España stage two: Cascais > Ourém (194km)
1. Kaden Groves (Aus) Alpecin-Deceuninck in 5:12:55
2. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike
3. Corbin Strong (NZl) Israel-Premier Tech
4. Pau Miquel Delgado (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma
5. Lennert van Eetvelt (Bel) Lotto Dstny
6. Pavel Bittner (Cze) dsm-firmenich-PostNL
7. Jon Aberasturi (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
8. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
9. Brandon Rivera (Col) Ineos Grenadiers
10. Filippo Baroncini (Ita) UAE Team Emirates (all same time)
General Classification after stage two
1. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike in 5:25:27
2. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates, +3s
3. Mathias Vacek (Cze) Lidl-Trek +5s
4. Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ, +9s
5. Edoardo Affini (Ita) Visma-Lease a Bike, +11s
6. Joshua Tarling (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, same time
7. Mauro Schmid (Swi) Team Jayco AlUla, +19s
8. Primoz Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +20s
9. Bruno Amirail (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +21s
10. Joao Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +22s
