Sepp Kuss celebrates first Grand Tour success as Kaden Groves wins thrilling Stage 21 finale of Vuelta a Espana

The 2023 Vuelta a Espana ended in spectacular fashion on Stage 21 with a thrilling bunch sprint won by Kaden Groves (Alpecin–Deceuninck), securing his third victory of the race, as Sepp Kuss rolled in to claim GC glory.

In what began as a procession for Jumbo-Visma with Kuss celebrating his first Grand Tour victory, the final stage ended up producing a frantic battle between the peloton and the breakaway.

As the bunch made contact inside the final kilometre, Remco Evenepoel launched an attack - all but forcing Groves into action and serving as an immaculate lead-out for the green jersey who sprinted to his third stage victory of this year's race, and what will surely be the most satisfying of the set.

Starting out at Madrid's celebrated Hipodromo de la Zarzuela racecourse, the standard processional part of the final stage was over far more quickly than normal. After the four jersey wearers, and Jumbo Visma as a team, had completed their curtain calls, the peloton pressed on for the city centre circuit.

The 5km course was shaped into three prongs, featuring long straights and tight hairpins that would bring riders all but to a standstill as they completed each corner. That had, in the past, made for some exciting racing and presented interesting opportunities for animation.

Clearly a couple of riders knew what was in store, and had grand plans, but they would not unveil themselves until the second of nine laps, after Alpecin-Deceuninck had helped Groves add another 20 points to his green jersey total.

When, with 44km of the stage remaining, two Bora-hansgrohe riders, Nico Denz and Lennard Kamna, clipped off the front of the bunch, they had Stage 15 winner Rui Costa (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) for company. At that point it seemed like the race was settling into the prototypical formula.

The three riders would, it was assumed, be permitted somewhere between 10 and 20 seconds, and five laps or so in the spotlight, before the sprinters’ teams tightened their grip on the race and set the race up for a grandstand finale.

And that might well have been how it would have played out were it not for a certain Evenepoel. A lap after the Bora riders' move, the very visible Belgian, in full king of the mountains skinsuit, propelled himself out of the peloton. With enough points for him to mathematically represent a threat to green jersey, Groves was ever vigilant and, with a team-mate's help, locked onto the QuickStep rider's wheel. Another interested party, Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) used his own helpers to get up to them and help form an extremely strong group of six at the front of the race.

Immediately it was clear that this was no ordinary breakaway, and the peloton had a fight on their hands. Not only was every one of them a Grand Tour stage winner, but their presence reduced the number of strong teams likely to work to bring them back from behind.

On such a technical circuit, the smaller group didn't need as much time as they would have on a simpler one. The on-screen time gap was hard to trust, but the camera doesn't lie. It was clear from how long it took the bunch to pass corresponding points on the screen that the escapees had at least a fighting chance.

They were also organised and committed, while the peloton, though greater in number, was neither of those things.

Still, the odds were never much more than 60:40 in their favour, and at times much shorter than that. Coming into the penultimate lap, a few fresher teams began adding to the firepower in the bunch, while the rhythm appeared to be breaking down, albeit only for a few moments here and there, in the break.

But they were able to hold on to a 10-second lead into the final kilometre. Only with one bend to go did they begin to lose faith and look around at each other. The peloton made contact with 500m remaining but did not overwhelm the leaders, none of whom was prepared to give up entirely.

In fact Evenepoel found an astonishing turn of pace to take him into the final corner with a few metres' lead - though not as much as Wout Poels had over him on Saturday.

Unfortunately for Evenepoel, Groves still had enough left in his legs that he could use the 23-year-old as his lead out. At 175m from the line, Groves pulled into the wind to launch his sprint. Ganna fought his hardest but had to settle for another second place, with Nico Denz rounding out the top three.

All six riders from the breakaway made the top 10 on the stage.

Groves was as pleased with his third stage win of the race as any of the others.

He said: "We came into today wanting to attack the stage and obviously keep the green jersey, but from a breakaway? That was not my intention. Remco this morning was a threat for the green jersey, so I suspected he might try something - not to take the jersey but to try and win the stage. I knew I had to follow him, so when he went, thankfully Edward did a great job to pull me across the gap. I didn't want to pull the guys in the last kilometre, because obviously it would take away my sprint. We all looked at each other and that meant the peloton could come back together. I knew that in the sprint I could find a little extra. Remco leading out at 500 metres was a big advantage to me."

Kuss crossed the line in the company of his team to celebrate another successful Grand Tour for Jumbo Visma.

"I think today was the stage that I suffered the most of the whole race. Now I’m just glad it’s over," said the American. "I knew it would be a fast stage when I saw all those guys getting ready to attack in the beginning. It was a nice way to finish it off. It’s life-changing for sure but I’ll look back on this experience with a lot of fond memories. I think it will take a long time to sink in."