Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) beat Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) in a dramatic two-up sprint in Villablino on stage 14 of the Vuelta a España.
Van Aert's team-mates had controlled the action all day and reeled in the day's breakaway in a bid to set up a fourth stage win for the Belgian, but Groves had too much power and took victory by a wheel as they both lunged for the line.
Van Aert burned up all his team-mates on the final category 1 climb and looked to piggyback off Groves' lead-out on the uphill drag to the line, but the Australian held him off for a second win at this year's race and a sixth in three editions.
Corbin Strong (Israel-PremierTech) finished best of the rest, with daylight between the top two and the remaining sprinters, who largely all survived the day's mountains to contest the finish.
A delighted Groves celebrated with his team-mates after the stage and told reporters, "It feels really good. I didn't actually expect today to be a sprint as it was but Jumbo [sic] controlled it, and to have a man on man sprint against Wout is pretty awesome.
"I was quite okay in the wheels [on the climb]. I thought it would be hard if they started attacking but thankfully Jumbo just rode a really hard pace and no one attacked, and thankfully my teammates also got over with me so we could control the finish.
"Today I didn't hesitate, I think I did a really good sprint. It felt like a bit of a drag race against Wout but in the end it was good enough to beat him."
On a day extremely light on GC action, the main drama was an untimely late mechanical for second-placed Primož Roglič inside the final 15km. He was forced to swap bikes with team-mate Dani Martinez and chase back on the final descent, but he rejoined the peloton without much trouble.
Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) retained the leader's red jersey on a more relaxed day for the general classification favourites. All the top 10 finished in the main bunch, likely already casting their minds ahead to stage 15's brutally mountainous challenge.
HOW IT HAPPENED
With just two categorised climbs on a lumpy parcours and neither steep enough to – in theory – put any of the GC riders in difficulty, this had been earmarked by all concerned as a stage for the breakaway.
And despite being the longest stage of this edition of the Vuelta, at 200.4km, the pace was blistering from the start. Wave after wave of attacks were neutralised by other riders eager to get up the road, until an hour had passed and the peloton had already rattled through a quarter of the stage, averaging 48.7km/h. The main GC teams were content to sit back and keep their powder dry, but even so it took an hour of racing before any group could get clear.
That move consisted of the trio of Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech). Their numbers soon doubled as first Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) and then perennial breakaway artist Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) and Harold Tejada (Astana-Qazaqstan) bridged across. Bahrain Victorious, who missed the break and are still winless at Grand Tours in 2024, looked to be considering bringing it back, but before long the escapees’ advantage had swung out to 90 seconds as the gradients gently pitched up.
Visma-Lease a Bike took control on the long drag to the first real climb, the category 3 Puerto de Cerredo, a fairly gentle ascent at 4.6% for 7km. The six leaders were pegged at around two minutes ahead of the bunch, a demoralising margin with a rampaging Van Aert hunting them down.
Meurisse attacked to take the maximum three points on the Puerto de Cerredo ahead of Frigo and Campenaerts, but with 20 seconds knocked off their advantage on the climb, the chance of a stage win slowly ebbed away along with the kilometres.
The six escapees rotated well to limit the damage on the descent, even pushing their gap out to 2:15 on an uncategorised kicker. But it was back down to 1:39 by the foot of the long, split descent – enough of a gap to prevent Van Aert winning the intermediate sprint, but not enough of a buffer to start dreaming of a stage win. Meurisse rolled over the line uncontested to take the points in Cangas del Narcea inside the final 50km, with 11km of false flat before the climb that would decide the outcome of the stage.
ONTO THE FINAL CLIMB
The category 1 Puerto de Leitariegos was the real battleground of the day, packing 1000m of altitude into a 22.8km slog. Its steady nature and average gradient of just 4.5% made it an unlikely scene for any general classification fireworks. The day was instead coming down to a fight between the six up the road and the seven Visma-Lease a Bike riders – with plenty of others sheltering in their slipstream and waiting for a chance.
With 40km to race and the climb approaching Visma-Lease a Bike had brought the gap down to a shade over a minute, and race leader Ben O’Connor’s teammates were also marshalling at the front.
Tejada, Narváez and Frigo immediately dropped their companions as the road pitched up – although Campenaerts still felt chipper enough to smile, pat Meurisse on the back and offer a peace sign to the camera motorbike as it panned back to the shelled riders.
That second trio on the road was soon swallowed up by the Visma-Lease a Bike machine, and despite a dogged defence, the final three escapees were slowly reeled in. Tejada was the first to abandon ship.
Ecuadorian champion Narváez – who had been the driving force in the break’s final stages – attacked Frigo a little over 6km from the summit, but it was a doomed move and he was picked off with just under 20km left to ride. He was awarded the day's combativity prize for his efforts.
As the peloton continued to climb into the swirling mists of the Puerto de Leitariegos’ upper slopes, Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) relieved Steven Kruijswijk of his duty as pacemaker and several teams jostled for position ahead of the descent. A remarkably fresh-faced Van Aert took the maximum KOM points unchallenged and was the first to roll onto the long, sweeping descent, with a bunch sprint looking increasingly certain.
Suddenly there was drama in the general classification as Roglič was struck by an unfortunate mechanical. He quickly shipped 30 seconds and was forced to adopt team-mate Martinez’s smaller bike to chase back onto the bunch. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe swarmed around the three-time champion and he made it back onto the peloton without further issue, with none of his rivals looking to take advantage of his misfortune.
The speed continued to ramp up as an unlikely sprint finish beckoned, and Alpecin-Deceuninck – who had spent the entire day resting in the peloton – took charge on the front.
Van Aert, devoid of teammates after their efforts on the final climb, clung on to the back of Groves’ lead-out train and looked to have the jump on his rival with 50m to go, but the Australian still had a late surge in him and won it on the line.
VUELTA A ESPAÑA STAGE 14 RESULTS: VILLAFRANCA DEL BIERZO > VILLABLINO (200.4KM)
1. Kaden Groves (Aus) Alpecin-Deceuninck, in 4:21:34
2. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike
3. Corbin Strong (NZ) Israel Premier-Tech
4. Mathias Vacek (Cze) Lidl-Trek
5. Pau Miquel Delgado (Esp) Equipo Kern Pharma
6. Filippo Baroncini (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
7. Simon Guglielmi (Fra) Arkea-B&B Hotels
8. Arjen Livyns (Bel) Lotto-Dstny
9. Xabier Berasategi (Esp) Euskaltel-Euskadi
10. Carlos Canal (Esp) Movistar, all at same time
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 14
1. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, in 56:31:49
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +1:21
3. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, +3:01
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +3:13
5. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal Quick-Step, +3:20
6. Carlos Rodríguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, +4:12
7. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:29
8. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +4:42
9. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +4:44
10. Adam Yates (GBr) UAE Team Emirates, +5:17
