Kaden Groves gives victory to Alpecin-Deceunink in stage 4 of La Vuelta

First stage really quiet for the members of the peloton of La Vuelta a España 2023 with the arrival of the race in Tarragona where Kaden Groves won after an atypical sprint. Remco Evenepoel continues to lead the general classification despite the intention expressed after yesterday's stage to give up the red jersey and thus avoid overworking his team.

The 4th stage of La Vuelta a España goes according to the script

No rain, no lack of light, no strange crashes... finally the cyclists experienced, in the 4th stage of the Tour of Spain, a calm stage. A very favorable route that took the peloton from the Pyrenees to the coast, specifically to Tarragona, with the only attraction of two small passes in the final part but not hard enough to foresee any movement among the leaders.

There was no fight for the day's breakaway, which was formed in the first attack at the start, composed of a trio made up of Eduardo Sepúlveda, who was looking to consolidate the lead in the mountains classification achieved yesterday, and Burgos-BH and Caja Rural-Seguros RGA riders Ander Okamika and David González.

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The Argentinean rider achieved his goal, making the breakaway resist until the two climbs that he managed to pass in first position before giving for good the work of the day and unhook to finish the stage quietly in the heart of the big group. His two companions stretched the attempt until they were caught with 20 km to go.

From there, a lot of speed as the peloton went into the region of Camp de Tarragona, something that inevitably ends up causing crashes. On this occasion it happened just over 4 km from the finish line, with Santiago Buitrago and Bryan Coquard as the most damaged riders, although they finally managed to get back on the bike to finish the stage.

Already in the streets of Tarragona, chaos would be the predominant note at the front, without a team with a clearly dominant sprinter. There was a new crash several hundred meters from the end that left Juan Sebastian Molano in the lead with no choice but to start from far away. A very hard acceleration that surprised everyone except Kaden Groves who launched himself into an agonizing chase.

Finally, when it seemed that Molano would take the stage, the last meters were a bit long, which were clearly uphill and the Australian of Alpecin-Deceuninck managed to come back to take the stage victory.

Stage 4 Classification

1. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4h05’41’’
2. Juan Sebastián Molno (UAE Team Emirates) +00’’
3. Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek) +00’’
4. Minal Menten (Lotto-Dstny) +00’’
5. Dris Van Gestel (TotalEnergies) +00’’
6. Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) +00’’
7. Hugo Page (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) +00’’
8. Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) +00’’
9. Sean Flynn (DSM-Firmenich) +00’’
10. Andrea Venddrame (AG2R Citroën) +06’’

Overall Classification

1. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) 12h48’58’’
2. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +05’’
3. Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) +15’’
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) +31’’
5. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +33’’
6. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-Hansgrohe) +37’’
7. Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich) +39’’
8. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +41’’
9. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +42’’
10. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) +46’’