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Australian sprinter Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was the favourite to take the win on stage 12 of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana. His team played the part, controlling the race all day until the final few hundred metres, where UAE Team Emirates swept past, Groves briefly dropped his chain and then found the deficit to Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) too great to recover.
The Queenslander was a fast-finishing second in the end, but there were several lengths to his Colombian rival over the finish line.
Groves was left slapping his handlebars in frustration for the second time in the race, another missed opportunity after falling to fifth on stage 7 where Geoffrey Soupe (Cofidis) took the win.
Groves, who had become the first Australian ever to win two consecutive stages of La Vuelta in the opening week, explained the incident.
"In the end we got bumped when UAE came with momentum and my chain actually dropped," Groves said.
"I managed to get it on and showed a really strong sprint but unfortunately I
was too far back, it was too late. In the end, it was an unlucky mechanical I
think, I had to come from quite a long way back.
"It's super-disappointing. It could have been win number three but we're still
in the hunt for the points jersey, which is also important to us now."
The Queenslander did extend his lead to 118 points in the green jersey though, taking maximum points in the day's intermediate sprint which also featured some GC action as Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) was a surprise second to nab four bonus seconds.
He will have two more big chances to double his tally of stage wins before the
race finishes on September 18, with stages 19 and 21 ones for the fast men.
La Vuelta moves into Tour de France territory tonight with a stage featuring 4,000 metres of climbing and a summit finish on the mythical Col du Tourmalet. Watch the action LIVE from 9:40pm AEST on SBS On Demand before coverage on SBS VICELAND begins from 10:40pm AEST.
