Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) powered to victory on stage 2 of the Vuelta a España in a bunch sprint in Ourém, while Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) moved into the red jersey of race leader after placing second.
The win was Groves’ first of the season and he was full value for his triumph here after parking himself on Van Aert’s wheel in the final kilometre and then sweeping past the Belgian within sight of the line.
“It’s a really nice way to win start this Vuelta, because it’s been a hard year for myself, not having a win yet,” Groves said. “I’ve come in here super motivated to change that and I’ve got to thank my team for a really strong ride today.”
Van Aert, who is himself chasing his first win since February, had the consolation of divesting Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) of the maillot rojo thanks to the time bonus he collected for second place.
“Of course, I wanted to win the stage,” Van Aert said. “My team did a really good job to make it a bunch sprint. It’s unfortunate to arrive second but also today I knew arriving in the first three meant the red jersey so after all it’s a good day.”
Van Aert’s teammate Edoardo Affini led out the sprint with a mammoth effort in the final kilometre before his leader hit the front inside the last 200m. Groves was primed and waiting on Van Aert’s wheel, however, and the Australian timed his effort smartly to steal past and claim the spoils.
Corbin Strong (Israel Premier Tech) finished rapidly to claim third place ahead of Miquel Pau (Kern Pharma) and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny).
Groves lost his regular lead-out men Xandro Meurisse and Edward Planckaert in a fraught finale, and he was instead forced to lean on the Van Aert-Affini tandem to claim his first victory since he won the final stage of last year’s Vuelta in Madrid.
“It wasn’t actually originally the plan, but my Edward and Meurisse had problems with the bike, I think they hit holes in the road,” Groves said. “Normally I think Wout would have followed me and my lead-out, but we had to do the opposite today.”
The opening road stage of the Vuelta was run off considerably behind the slowest estimated schedule, but the finale was nonetheless an intense one and marred by a crash with a shade under 2km to go that saw Josh Tarling, Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos) and Max Poole (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) among the fallers. They all remounted and completed the stage, but it was a reminder of the occupational hazards in the tense opening phase of a Grand Tour.
How it unfolded
The peloton assembled in the coastal resort of Cascais for the opening road stage of the Vuelta, which brought the race as far as the Atlantic coast in the opening kilometres before swinging inland by way of the haunting hilltop town of Sintra.
The stage also took in one of the great landmarks of Portuguese cycling, Torres Vedras, hometown of the late Joaquim Agostinho. Portugal’s greatest-ever cyclist twice finished on the podium of the Tour de France, and he is remembered with a museum that bears his name.
The route also passed by the hometown of the leading light of contemporary Portuguese cycling, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), who was cheered from the rafters as the bunch made its way through Caldas da Rainha.
The crowds had to wait to see their hometown hero, given the low speed in the opening phase of Sunday’s stage. There was precious little competition for the early break as Luis Ángel Maté (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Ibon Ruiz (Kern Pharma) slipped clear in the opening kilometres and the race was a sedate one for much of the afternoon.
Maté led Ruiz over the category 4 Alto do Lagoa Azul and they established a maximum lead of three minutes over a peloton that was content to allow them a few hours beneath the scalding August sun.
Even so, there was unwelcome drama in the peloton when Dylan van Baarle (Visma-Lease a Bike) was a faller, and the Dutchman – who had already missed the Tour de France through injury – was forced to abandon.
The Vuelta waits for no man, of course, and Visma-Lease a Bike soon set about the endeavour of chasing down the escapees on behalf of Van Aert.
They didn’t quite succeed in shutting down Maté and Ruiz ahead of the intermediate sprint in Alcobaça with 53km to go, and Van Aert also suffered the frustration being beaten to the last available bonuses by Groves.
Maté and Ruiz’s adventure petered out with 40km to go, which was perhaps a little sooner than the sprinters’ teams would have liked, particularly with such undulating terrain in the finale.
There was a definite rise in intensity on the long, shallow category 4 ascent of Alto da Batalha, where Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep) sprang onto the attack, followed by Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates). They were reeled in swiftly but the pace didn’t abate with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe taking up the reins for Primož Roglič.
A number of fast men were beginning to struggle at the back of the bunch, and the stress was heightened still further when the peloton was split after Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) was brought down in a crash, mercifully without injury.
Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) led the bunch over the top to claim possession of the king of the mountains jersey, having worn it on Sunday by dint of his fourth-place finish in the opening time trial.
Red Bull and the GC teams were able to drift from the front in the final 4km as the sprinters took centre stage. Groves claimed the day, while Van Aert took the jersey. He leads McNulty by three seconds in the overall standings and Vacek by five, though his mind was already drifting to Monday’s finale in Castelo Branco. “The legs are good,” Van Aert said. “We are here to try it over and over again.”
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