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The Queensland sprinter made the most of his first sprint for a stage victory, overcoming Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) on a dragging uphill finish in Tarragona to win the 185-kilometre stage. Groves had been denied a win on stage 2, when finishing first of the main group behind solo winner Andreas Kron (Lotto-Dstiny) to take second on the wet and wild stage.
The final sprint on stage 4 was also a hectic one, as Groves chased down Molano after a mini-pileup on a sharp bend saw Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Robbe Ghys and Marijn Van Den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) fall into a barrier with 400 metres remaining.
"That last corner was super tight, in the end, Van Den Berg and Robbe ran the corner wide and crashed. But that meant a big gap opened for Sebas Molano and myself,” said Groves post-race.
"Molano went full from the bottom with 350 metres to go and I was luckily patient and strong enough to close on him with 100 metres left to the finish."
Groves was confident of taking the win, from that position, though it was a tired-looking sprint from the Gympie native.
“Because Molano had already led out from 350 metres, and on a finish like that, super tough and quite long, I thought he'd have to be on a really good day to beat me,” said Groves.
The 24-year-old took his third Grand Tour stage victory at his third participation in a Grand Tour, his debut win coming in the 2022 Vuelta, before squeezing out a tight victory over Jonathan Milan and Mads Pedersen on Stage 5 of the Giro d’Italia. Groves has gone through a checkered racing calendar since then, however.
"During the Giro I got sick, and we decided I'd leave the race and focus on Suisse, where in the end there was only one sprint stage, " Groves said. "Then on that one stage I crashed, so I didn't have a very good result."
"Afterwards I've been on a break at home, recovering and then like I said I've done two good altitude camps to prepare for this Vuelta and it shows in my performances here."
Groves won comfortably in the end, a few lengths ahead of Molano with daylight in the gap behind to the peloton, with Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek) in third. He put a lot of credit down to the work of his team and signalled that this could be the first of many as the highest-regarded sprinter in the Vuelta field.
“The work we've done, all of our staff and teammates and the environment we have here to really ride as one and commit to the sprints. Not only in the Grand Tours, in every race we go to."
"I'm really happy, it's been a good year. I had a stage win in the Giro and now one in the Vuelta quite early and hopefully it's not the last."
La Vuelta continues with Stage 5 a 186-kilometre route from Morella to Burriana that could be the scene of another Groves victory or a breakaway winner. Tune in from 10.50pm AEST on SBS VICELAND for all the live action, or catch up the next day on SBS On Demand.
