photo credits @ Le Tour
Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is much more than a sprinter, as he has proved time and again in his career – though never before at the Tour de France.
Already a winner of seven stages in the Vuelta a Espana and two in the Giro d’Italia, the Australian rider came to the French Grand Tour for the first time this year as lead-out man for Jasper Philipsen, who crashed out of the race on day 3. After Mathieu van der Poel also retired due to illness at the beginning of week 3, Groves made today’s breakaway, displaying his versatility in a stage marked by aggressive racing from Santa to Pontarlier, where he took his maiden Tour stage win. Part of a 13-man breakaway, he covered the final 16 kilometres solo to claim victory ahead of Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal Quick-Step). He is the 114th rider to win stages in all three Grand Tours. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) leads the overall standings going into the final stage on Sunday in Paris.
Race Highlights
Right from the gun, Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) set off. The Danish rouleur found success on these roads before, having pulled off a hard-fought breakaway victory in Bourg-en-Bresse in stage 18 of the 2023 Tour, some 30 kilometers west of Nantua.
The Dane went hard under the rain but he didn’t succeed in breaking away due to the many attacks and counter-attacks shaking up the peloton. However, Harry Sweeny eventually instigated a 13-man breakaway at km 65, with the Australian rider being joined by Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) with nine more chasers: Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal-Quick Step), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Groves, Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Ivan Romeo (Movistar), Simone Velasco (XDS-Astana), Jordan Jegat (Total Energies), Frank van den Broek (Picnic-PostNL) and Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech).
As Jegat threatened Ben O’Connor’s 10th place in the overall standings, his Jayco AlUla teammate Mauro Schmid was tasked with driving the scattered bunch, monetarily dropping Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) but the situation eventually settled.
Despite a crash at km 71, the Swiss national champion controlled the gap at 2’30’’ at the bottom of the main climb of the day, Côte de Thésy, later reaching the summit alongside Sweeny. However, Jegat went solo again with 54 kilometers to go, later opening up a gap of 40’’ on his breakaway rivals before 10 riders eventually got back together as they hit the bottom of the Côte de Longeville.
A group of six riders containing Grégoire, Romeo, Velasco, Groves, Stewart and Van den Broek crested the summit, while Grégoire led on the descent.
From there, Romeo counter-attacked but he crashed with 22 km to go, ensnaring Grégoire and Velasco are as well, while Groves, Stewart and Van den Broek continued onward.
With 16.5 km to go, Stewart and Van den Broek paused, giving Groves the opportunity to attack.
From that point on, Groves never looked back, with Van den Broek (+54’’) and Eenkhoorn (+59’’) later completing the top 3, while Grégoire has to settle for 5th on his home roads.
Meanwhile, the peloton crossed the line with a gap of over 7 minutes.
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