Kaden Groves is not a masquerader in the Vuelta a España’s green jersey. He took green home last year, wearing it all the way from stage four to Madrid where he won his third stage of the 2023 edition. He’s won eight Grand Tour stages in the past two years, as many as Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier combined, and double that of Biniam Girmay. His victory tally of eight is much more than the returns of Dylan Groenewegen and Olav Kooij. And on stage 17 of the 2024 Vuelta, he scored his third triumph in the race, winning in the autumnal rain of Santander.
He was dressed in verde, but only by a stroke of misfortune on the part of its previous owner Wout van Aert who crashed out the day before. The Belgian, who had similarly won three stages in the past few weeks, had a lead in the points classification of 109 over the Australian Groves, and would almost certainly have won the competition had his right knee not felt the full force of a rock face. But, as much as Van Aert doesn’t need to be reminded, this is Grand Tour racing, and part of the challenge (and appeal) is not getting injured or sick and completing all 21 days. Devastatingly for the Visma-Lease a Bike rider who was also in the polka dot jersey, he was unable to.
But Groves is a worthy wearer of green, too. In fact, look at his skillset, and he should be wearing green. Ask anyone who’s among the best sprinters in world cycling these days, and very few will point to Groves, but he’s got speed, power, a refined knack of poking his way through the bunch, and the best dedicated sprint train in the race. What’s more, as he proved on stage 14, he can get over mountains much better than most fastmen – a fundamental characteristic of winning the Vuelta’s points classification.
It would be hyperbole to write that his Alpecin-Deceuninck team are on par with the great sprinting teams of yesteryear, but they’ve certainly got their work dialled in. Whether it’s for Jasper Philipsen at the Tour de France or Groves at the Giro and Vuelta, they very rarely falter. In Italy in May, Groves failed to win, but he scored four top threes; in France in July, Philipsen won three times; and in Spain this summer, Groves has a second and third to go alongside his three victories. Alpecin’s leadout always delivers.
And it did so again along the Cantabrian coast. Filthy weather, the sort that seems to plague the Vuelta’s visit to the north year-on-year, made catching the breakaway more complicated than it ought to have been, and with only Alpecin, dsm-firmenich PostNL and Kern Pharma pulling for a sprint, a bunch finish wasn’t guaranteed until the final 500 metres. But when it was definitely game on, Groves made his move on the right of the road and held off the oncoming Pavel Bittner of DSM.
There is to be no refuting the fact that Groves is once again the Vuelta’s best sprinter, and of current active riders, only 14 have more stage wins in three-week racing than he does – and only Tadej Pogačar is younger than him (by all of three months). Groves shouldn’t feel like an imposter in what some might refer to as “Van Aert’s green jersey”, but he’s conscious that his succession of wins in Spain aren’t garnering the attention and respect that they otherwise would in the Giro or the Tour. Unsurprisingly, therefore, he’s now publicly staking his claim for inclusion in next year’s Tour, saying earlier in the week that “ideally next year I can race there along with Jasper”, adding that “we’re different sprinters: I’m more suited to reduced sprints, so hopefully there’ll be a place for both of us in the Tour.” A second consecutive and merited green jersey at the Vuelta is just days away, but has he earned promotion to the Tour?
