Nat Bromhead
24yo Queenslander Kaden Groves has joined the likes of Robbie McEwen, Michael Matthews and Baden Cooke after winning a Grand Tour green jersey.
Groves, from Gympie north of Brisbane, created history with the Vuelta sprinters jersey win and became the first Aussie to ever do so.
Winning three stages of the final Grand Tour of the year, Groves said his Alpecin-Deceuninck team had done the maths and realised that after he’d won the intermediate sprint of the final stage, if Remco Evenepoel won the stage, he would have had to at least finish seventh to win the overall jersey.
But he did a lot better than that and won Stage 21 of La Vuelta in Madrid.
“Today we really wanted to keep the points jersey and I didn’t have a clear lead,” Groves said.
“Remco Evenepoel would’ve won the jersey if he’d got the stage so it means a lot to defend it,” he added. “It’s also my third Vuelta victory of this Grand Tour and that’s the cherry on the top.”
Thanking his teammates for their support over the past 3-weeks, Groves finished second on two other stages and said he was ‘super proud of the team for really committing to this entire Tour.’
“This victory is for my teammates as well,” the Queenslander said.
“I’m told I’m the first Australian to win green here in the Vuelta, and that also means a lot. It shows the consistency we’ve displayed through this race. We’ve had to commit to a lot of intermediate sprints this race and the mountains also have a lot of points.”
Bicycling Australia heartily congratulates Kaden Groves on his epic achievement.
