Vuelta a Espana 2023: Kaden Groves edges Filippo Ganna to double up in Stage 5 as Remco Evenepoel extends lead

Updated 30/08/2023 at 19:06 GMT

Australia’s Kaden Groves doubled up by holding off Italy’s Filippo Ganna in an unexpected match-up to a fast finish in Stage 5 of La Vuelta a Espana in Burriana. Race leader Remco Evenepoel also strengthened his grip on the red jersey after a canny move to pick up six bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint near the finish.

Highlights: Groves takes second victory in a row to win Stage 5 of Vuelta

If recent history repeated itself on La Vuelta a Espana – with Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sprinting to a second successive win in Spain – then the Australian at least faced an unexpected adversary in the form of Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) at the thrilling conclusion to Stage 5 in Burriana.

Italian powerhouse Ganna used his fine form off the back of the track world championships by inveigling himself into another chaotic bunch sprint finale to the 186km stage from Morella.

But even an inspired Ganna did not have enough zip to beat the man of the moment as Groves struck gold once again by half a bike length – despite seeing two members of his Alpecin-Deceuninck train skid out of contention on a roundabout 3km from the finish.

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Just 11km earlier, Groves had decided to keep his powder dry in the intermediate sprint – settling for second place behind the red jersey Remco Evenepoel, whose quick thinking saw the race leader take another six bonus seconds on his GC rivals.

Soudal-QuickStep’s Evenepoel now leads Spain’s Enric Mas (Movistar) by 11 seconds in the new-look standings, with French debutant Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) in third at 17 seconds and the Danish double Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) in fourth at 37 seconds.

Groves’ latest victory saw the 24-year-old become the first Australian to win a stage on the Vuelta while in the green jersey – a competition he now leads by 60 points on his nearest challenger, the Italian Andrea Vendrame (AG2R-Citroen).

How 'monster' Ganna nearly stole Stage 5 from Groves in 'drag race'

Belgium’s Dries Van Gestel (TotalEnergies) joined Groves and Ganna on the podium, while Italy’s Alberto Dainese (Team dsm-firmenich) showed a return to form with fourth place ahead of Britain’s Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ). Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek) cut a frustrated figure as he crossed the line for sixth place after appearing to be barged out of contention on the home straight by compatriot Van Gestel.

The big GC casualty of the day was Frenchman Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich) who came down in the crash just outside the 3km mark and conceded over five minutes, slipping 33 places out of the top 10 to 40th place.

La Vuelta 2023 Stage 5 recap: Groves denies Ganna with second win

A bad start to the stage for Team Jayco-AlUla saw their Irish GC rider Eddie Dunbar crash out in the neutral zone – and things only got worse when the Australian team lost their Italian climber Filippo Zana to stomach issues later in the stage, reducing their roster to just six riders in the opening week.

An otherwise uneventful day was animated by a long solo break by Uruguayan debutant Eric Fagundez (Burgos-BH) who went clear after 17km to carve out a maximum lead of over five minutes on the pack.

Alpecin-Deceuninck controlled the chase in the peloton behind, bringing the advantage of the lone leader down to under two minutes before the only categorised climb of the day, the Cat.2 Collado de la Ibola.

Sensing an opportunity to extend his lead in the king of the mountains classification, Argentina’s Eduardo Sepulveda (Lotto Dstny) rode clear of the pack on the climb to join – then pass – Fagundez with around 55km remaining. Sepulveda then pocked the five points over the summit to move 11 points clear of Evenepoel in the polka dot jersey standings.

Race leader Evenepoel takes intermediate sprint win in Stage 5 of Vuelta

Both Fagundez and Sepulveda were duly swept up on the descent as the pace intensified ahead of the finish. Evenepoel showed off his race craft and instinct by stealing a march over his rivals in the intermediate sprint before Alpecin-Deceuninck returned to the front to pave the way for their man Groves.

Nine roundabouts in a stressful three-and-a-half kilometres towards the finish increased the tension in the pack. Indeed, it was on one of these roundabouts that a cluster of riders – including two of Groves’ team-mates, Frenchman Bardet and the Belgian sprinter Milan Menten (Lotto Dstny) – lost their front wheels and hit the deck with 3.1km remaining.

As the riders swept under the flamme rouge, Groves was in prime position – but this time faced a different challenger in the form of the beefcake Italian, Ganna.

“With 30km to go, [Geraint Thomas] asked me if I wanted to do the sprint, and I said, ‘Yes, why not?’, so we decided to do it,” Ganna later explained. “I’m really happy because we avoided the crash [with 3km to go] but I had to come back to the front and spend a lot of energy. So obviously it was hard to do a lot in the sprint but we tried our best.”

'What drama on the line!' – Groves wins Stage 5 of the Vuelta by narrowest of margins

Ganna’s best was second place behind the in-form Groves – no disgrace, all things considered – as the Australian fast-man kept up his winning streak on the Costa del Sol.

“It’s a fantastic feeling to win two stages in a row – especially in the green jersey,” Groves said. “It was another hectic finale with a lot of roundabouts. On top of the climbing there was some wind, which made it nervous. But my team was fantastic again despite losing two guys in the crash on a roundabout near the finish.”

Even a red-hot Groves will accept that two won’t become three on Thursday as the focus shifts back to the GC battle with the second summit finish of the race on the double-digit ramps of the steep Pico del Buitre climb.

The six seconds gained by Evenepoel over his rivals for red may seem small beer compared to the possible gains and losses at the Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre at the end of Stage 6.