Australia's Groves doubles up at Vuelta
Sports
Australia's Kaden Groves won a second successive stage on the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday.
BURRIANA (Spain) (AFP) – Australia's Kaden Groves won a second successive stage on the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday, coming out on top in a sprint finish to Burriana.
Alpecin-Deceuninck sprinter Groves came home ahead of Italy's Filippo Ganna while defending champion Remco Evenepoel stretched his overall lead.
Evenpoel stunned the peleton by winning the intermediate sprint, 11km from the finish line, to pocket six bonus seconds.
The Belgian now has an 11-second lead over Movistar's Enric Mas and is 17 seconds ahead of Lenny Martinez of Groupama-FDJ.
Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard, of Jumbo-Visma, is fourth overall, 37 seconds off the lead.
Groves, 24, controlled the sprint, resisting pressure from Ganna and was able to collect 60 points to consolidate his hold on the green jersey for points leader.
"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 all nervous."
The end of the stage was marked by a fall just over three kilometres from the finish which split the leading bunch as a run of nine roundabouts tested the riders' patience.
Meanwhile, the start of the stage saw Jayco-AlUla team leader Eddie Dunbar forced to retire after a fall in the neutralised zone while Italy's Filippo Zana was also forced out with stomach pain.
On Thursday, the Vuelta moves back to the mountains with the sixth stage featuring a category 1 climb in the Sierra de Javalambre.
