Sprint in the mountains of León for Kaden Groves

Medium mountain stage in La Vuelta a España 2024, a day that, as has been happening in recent days, seemed like fertile ground for a breakaway and would have been if it weren't for the ambition of Wout van Aert who had his team working to bring down the day's breakaway and force a sprint finish where, however, the Belgian could not surpass a fabulous Kaden Groves who thus adds his second victory in this edition.

Calm in La Vuelta 2024 before the Asturian storm tomorrow

After a tremendously eventful second week, today La Vuelta 2024 experienced a much more peaceful day than the previous ones in a medium mountain stage that led the peloton from Villafranca del Bierzo to Villablino, a journey of 200 kilometers, the longest stage of La Vuelta 2024, through the mountains of León with a final loop that entered Asturian lands ascending the Cerredo pass after a first pass through the finish line and returning to León through the long, though gentle, Leitariegos pass.

A day that, a priori, could be thought of as perfect terrain for a breakaway again with a peloton that would surely seek to save energy for the monstrous stage that will end the second week of the race tomorrow. And so the day began, with a lot of pace and attacks that made it take more than 30 kilometers to form the breakaway.

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A breakaway of the day that would be made up of 6 cyclists, again, with the common denominator of being high-level cyclists: Isaac del Toro, Jhonatán Narváez, Xandro Meurisse, Marco Frigo, Victor Campenaerts, and Harold Tejada. But, despite their strength, they would not manage to open up more than two and a half minutes of advantage over the peloton.

The reason was the appearance of Visma-Lease a Bike, which set a strong pace behind to prevent the gap from widening, something that surely annoyed a day that was presumed to be peaceful for many in the peloton since the stage turned into a constant pursuit. Differences that were kept under control at all times until, at the passage through the sprint in Cangas del Narcea, where the road ascended again to reach the Leitariegos pass, they barely enjoyed a 1-minute advantage.

At this point, a few kilometers further on, once the pass was officially started, the breakaway was selected after Narváez's acceleration who went ahead accompanied by Frigo and Tejada who would put up a fight. However, little by little, Narváez's companions began to give in until, finally, he was caught less than 3 kilometers from the summit.

A new race began for the final stretch in which, first of all, Wout van Aert took the lead at the top of the pass to continue adding points in the mountain classification that he has led since yesterday's stage. From there, a very fast descent section where the anecdote of the day occurred with Primoz Roglic's puncture, who quickly received a replacement bike from his teammate Daniel Felipe Martínez and managed to return to the peloton easily.

In the last kilometer, Alpecin-Deceuninck took the lead after Kaden Groves resisted the pass. In fact, he received a perfect lead-out on a straight finish that clearly inclined upwards. He launched the sprint at the chosen moment and Wout van Aert, who saw the play perfectly, held onto his wheel and came out of the slipstream. It seemed like he was going to overtake easily but no, Kaden Groves managed to sustain his maximum speed a little longer to win comfortably and add his second stage victory.

Stage 14 Classification

1. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4h21'34''
2. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) +00''
3. Corbin Strong (Israel-PremierTech) +00''
4. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +00''
5. Pau Miquel (Kern-Pharma) +00''
6. Filippo Baroncini (UAE Team Emirates) +00''
7. Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +00''
8. Arien Livyns (Lotto-Dstny) +00''
9. Xabier Berasategi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) +00''
10. Carlos Canal (Movistar Team) +00''

General Classification

1. Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) 56h31'49''
2. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1'21''
3. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +3'01''
4. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +3'13''
5. Mikel Landa (TRex-QuickStep) +3'20''
6. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +4'12''
7. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +4'29''
8. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +4'42''
9. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +4'44''
10. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +5'17''