photo credits @ La Vuelta
Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) triumphed over green jersey Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) during an uphill finish in Villablino to claim stage 14 of the Vuelta a España today, while Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) rounded out the podium at the front of a reduced peloton.
Alpecin-Deceuninck had command of the head of the peloton in the closing kilometers, ultimately delivering its Australian rider to his second stage win of the race, while DSM-Firmenich PostNL worked in earnest to move Pavel Bittner into prime position. But, the final gradients to the line saw Groves and van Aert emerge as the top finishers.
Initially, Groves was the first to launch his sprint during the closing 150 meters, with van Aert closely marking his move, but the points classification leader didn’t have enough power to outlast Groves.
Earlier, it took 50 kilometers of racing before a small breakaway group containing Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates), Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin Deceuninck), Marco Frigo (Israel Premier Tech), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) and Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan) finally rode clear of the peloton.
However, it wasn’t long before the escapees’ advantage was reduced to around a minute ahead of the 22.7-km long Puerto de Leitariegos, with Narvaez, Frigo and Tejada later jettisoning their companions.
With 7 kilometers remaining to the summit, Narvaez attacked, but the Spanish rider was eventually reined in 3 kilometers before the summit.
In the meantime, Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) suffered a mechanical problem along the descent, but the Slovenian rider was able to make his way back into the bunch.
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