Stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia, a tricky final stage with a series of climbs after nearly 200km of racing, seemed perfectly suited for Caden Groves.

The sprinter was in good form and showed that he could outrun the other fast men of the Giro, using the Alpecin-Desseuninck team to control the gap to the breakaway group on this second longest stage of the three week race. 158 km later, the peloton was in the middle By the time the sprint came around, all eight team members were in the lead group. They controlled the gap, reeled in the early breakaway group, used the bumpy final third of the stage to chase off rivals, and then led out for Groves.

With 40km to go, the team was still in the lead when the race exploded in a chain of punchy hills around Naples. Alpecin's pace was enough to push out the backrunners, including stage 3 winners Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quick Step) and Fabio Jacobsen (dsm-Firmenich Post NL).

Everything was going according to plan.

In a familiar move, Julien Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) attacked in the last 25 km and was soon joined by Groves' teammate Nicolas Consi The two worked together to catch the early breakaway duo.

Groves was still in the peloton and followed some of the attacks that kept flying from the front.

The next big attack came from Honatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) with 7km to go, when race leader Tadey Pogachar replaced his UAE teammate and pulled away from this Ecuadorian national champion in the last 200m, allowing Orage Kooi ( Vimaris A Bikes) won the race.

"It was a pretty hard stage. I expected a big group at the finish. We were told that this stage was going to be really selective, but I think it ended up being a big group because everyone was at a high level," Groves said.

"Then Alaphilippe and a lot of guys attacked early on, and finally Jonathan Narvaez was super strong again.

"It was really hectic, hectic to the finish, and Trek took control in the end, but Coy beat us.

By the time Narvaez reeled in, the isolated Groves had fallen far behind and could not get back to the front in time. He eventually finished seventh.

"Of course, I am quite disappointed. I was trying too hard to keep up with the attackers, and I thought it was a hard final and we might have a big group, but in the end I wasted a lot of energy.

Groves used his team to control the peloton from the start of the stage and understood the impact of losing a teammate.

"It's always good to get more help, but I used my team early and that's what ended up happening."

The Australian is still looking for his first win in 2024. He finished second to Jonathan Milano (Lidl-Trek) on stage 4 and, like other fast men, missed a chance for a stage win when the breakaway crossed the finish line on stage 5.