Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) beat Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) in a dramatic two-up sprint in Villablino on Stage 14.
Van Aert’s team-mates had controlled the action all day and reeled in the day’s breakaway in a bid to set up a fourth stage win for the Belgian, but Groves had too much power in the end and took victory by a wheel as they both lunged for the line.
Van Aert burned up all his team-mates on the final category 1 climb and looked to piggyback off Groves’ lead-out on the uphill drag to the line, but the Australian held him off for a second win at this year’s race.
Corbin Strong (Israel-PremierTech) finished best of the rest, with daylight between the top two and the remaining sprinters.
Primož Roglič suffered an untimely late mechanical and swapped bikes with team-mate Dani Martinez inside the final 15km, but he rejoined the peloton without much trouble on a day that was extremely light on GC action.
More to follow…