Volta a Catalunya: Kaden Groves wins crosswind-hit second stage

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BikeExchange-Jayco made it two wins in two days at the Volta a Catalunya as Kaden Groves sprinted to his first career WorldTour victory on the crosswind-hit second stage in Perpignan.

The 23-year-old was the quickest finisher – just – from a reduced group of around 30 riders, which split off from the peloton after Cofidis and Movistar had driven at the front as the wind hit in the closing 15 kilometres.

It was race leader Michael Matthews who provided the lead-out to his compatriot, with Groves edging out Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) in a photo finish at the line. Hugo Hofstetter (Arkéa-Samsic) rounded out the podium in third place.

The Mistral wind proved to be a double-edged sword for the Australian team, however, as their GC leader Simon Yates shed 33 seconds after getting caught in a crash just before the peloton split into pieces inside the final 15 kilometres.

"I've waited a long time for this, and it feels pretty amazing," Groves said after his win.

"It was pretty tough actually. Some echelons splitting the bunch. It was Michael and I in the front and a lot of other strong teams like Movistar and Jumbo. Simon was out the back, and they were using that to their advantage to put some time into him. It was pretty full gas.

"The guys did such a great job all day riding in a good position at the front, making sure the breakaway was close so it could be a sprint today, and also being in position for before the crosswinds."

With Matthews leading out heading around the final bend and onto the short finishing straight, Groves still had Bauhaus to contend with over the final 150 metres. The German, who won the final stage at Tirreno-Adriatico, hit the wind first with Groves in his wheel.

Groves himself edged out of the slipstream at 50 metres to go, pulling alongside at the 25-metre sign before throwing his bike at the line. A split second later, he had won it.

"I liked this stage, and I picked this stage out to get the victory," he said later. "I can't believe I've got it. Maybe later in the week we can have another sprint."

Yates was the main GC casualty of the winds during the 202.4-kilometre stage, while the day provided an unexpected new leader. Jonas Iversby Hvideberg (Team DSM) pulls on the green-and-white jersey after grabbing five bonus seconds from his second successive day out in the breakaway.

How it unfolded

The second stage of the Volta a Catalunya would be another for the sprinters as the peloton headed 202.4 kilometres from L'Escala to Perpignan just over the border in France. The second-longest stage of the race would pose few obstacles for the sprinters despite 2,166 metres of climbing. A cluster of mid-stage hills coming too far from the finish to provoke any attacks that could threaten the stage win.

It took fewer than 10 kilometres for the break of the day to establish themselves, with KOM leader Jonas Iversby Hvideberg (Team DSM) out in the move once again along with Joan Bou (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Adrià Moreno (Burgos-BH).

The trio were allowed an advantage of five minutes fairly swiftly, pulling out the large time gap within the first 30 kilometres of the race and making Hvideberg the virtual GC leader for much of the day.

That situation remained for the first half of the stage before the hills loomed. Hvideberg, unsurprisingly, scooped up the three KOM points on offer at the third-category climb of the Collde Sa Perafita after 108 kilometres of racing, extending his lead in the mountains classification to boot.

The Norwegian took second and first at the two intermediate sprints shortly afterwards, with Bou winning the first as the breakaway riders shared a handful of bonus seconds between them, with Hvideberg taking four that would eventually see him pull on the race leader's jersey.

At 73 to go, a crash took out several riders in the middle of the peloton, including the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl trio of Ilan Van Wilder, Andrea Bagioli, and Ethan Vernon, though all involved were quick to resume racing.

Bou took three KOM points at the third-category Coll del Frare a few kilometres later, repeating the result at the next climb, the third-category Coll del Belitres on the Spain-France border. Despite his efforts, though, Hvideberg hung on to his KOM lead.

A nasty crash took out several riders, including Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) and Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo) on the way down the Belitres, with the latter going off the road and down a ravine. The Dane thankfully seemed to avoid major injury, however, and was able to get back to the race in short order.

At 50 kilometres to go, Richie Porte (Ineos Grenadiers) left the race suffering from illness, while out front the time gap had dipped to just under two minutes. From that point onwards, with a mostly flat run to the line, it was all about the sprint squads and when the inevitable catch would eventually be made.

That catch came at just inside the 30-kilometre mark, as the peloton – led by DSM, Jumbo-Visma, Arkéa-Samsic, and QuickStep-AlphaVinyl, among others – scooped the trio up.

Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) was among those caught up in a crash at a corner with 16 kilometres to go, the GC contender forced to chase with several teammates at 40 seconds behind the peloton.

At the front it was Cofidis doing the work along with Movistar, and at 13 kilometres to go the peloton split apart in the crosswinds on the exposed roads of south-east Occitanie. A group of around 50 riders remained at the head of the race, while Yates made it back to the second group of around 30 at 10 kilometres to go.

By then, 45 seconds separated the two front groups, with the British GC contender looking set to take a major hit to his hopes of overall contention. Up the road it was Bahrain Victorious, Jumbo-Visma, and Movistar pulling the lead group, which was packed with the rest of the GC men and several sprinters, as they sought to preserve the gap to Yates.

The gap remained, holding at 40 seconds as the lead group sped into the final few kilometres with Jumbo-Visma and QuickStep-AlphaVinyl leading the way. It was those two teams, along with BikeExchange-Jayco, who were on the front heading into the final kilometre.

At the crucial point heading around the final bend, it was Matthews who had control of the front, leading out Groves, who lay just after Bauhaus in the race leader's wheel. The German launched first, but 150 metres later he was second, only just missing out on his second WorldTour win of the month to the young Australian.