Australian sprinter Kayden Groves won the 2023 Vuelta a España on Sunday, his first victory of the season and first since his hat trick in last year's race.

Alpecin Deceuninck's rapid pace has not had an easy year, hampered by illness and injury until the Vuelta.

But in this year's Vuelta, famous for its lack of sprint stages, Groves not only chose to come to Spain, he justified his decision at the first possible opportunity.

The 25-year-old was isolated from his teammates during the technical uphill sprint in Ourem, suffering mechanical problems and other accidents.

However, Groves has already proven that he can go it alone in tough terrain, passing Wout Van Aert and proving once again that he is in his element even when the Vuelta a España is in exotic terrain like Portugal.

“I've seen the route and my results already show that I can survive a hard stage like this,” Groves told reporters after the race.

“This is always a tough course, but I did okay.”

“Things changed when my teammate unfortunately had mechanical trouble. But in the end (Edoardo) Affini went for it and I was able to take advantage of it and get into the position I wanted."

”I was able to get a good start, but I was not able to get into the position I wanted to be in.

Although almost all of the Vuelta's sprints take place during the first week of racing, Groves said he does not plan to fly home early. I'm going to finish the race,” he said. 'I don't have a lot of race days because of my injury, so I want to see what happens if I get into the breakaway.'

Groves is clearly in great shape and said he will race with the same buildup as in 2023, except that he competed in the World Championships last August, had a high-altitude training camp in Tignes in the Alps as in 2023, and went straight to Portugal for the Vuelta The team then traveled directly to Portugal for the Vuelta start.

However, he was cautious about the possibility of keeping the green jersey, which he won outright in the 2023 Vuelta, topping the points standings ahead of Van Aert (Visma-Ries-A-Bike), given the extreme hilly terrain that lies ahead.

“I don't think it's possible to win a second time,” he said. Last year I took the jersey in the intermediate sprint and this time I have to ride really difficult mountains to get the points.”

The Australian was equally uncertain about his chances for a second consecutive win, with a steep early section that includes a second-class mountain and then flattens out significantly in the last 80 km. In any case, Groves' first win, both in the Vuelta and this season, and especially given the paucity of sprints in Spain this year, his participation here is already a major success story.

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