Vuelta 2023: Groves wins spectacular finale in Madrid - Kuss is overall winner
Sebastian Lindner
· 17.09.2023
It is exactly ten years since Chris Horner clinched his first American victory. Now the 29-year-old Kuss from Durango, Colorado with German ancestors is his successor. Kuss is also the third professional from Jumbo-Visma to win one of the three major national tours this year. Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard and Giro winner Primoz Roglic also completed the Vuelta podium, making the absolute triumph perfect. The Dutch team also rode with a special jersey on the final day.
"I'm still me, the victory changes a lot, but not me," said the emotional Kiss after the stage. "It was an experience with great memories, but it will still take time for me to process everything. It's time to celebrate today, many of my family and friends are here. And then there's the whole staff and the riders, who I want to toast with."
The final result of the Vuelta a Espana 2023
- Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) 76:48:21
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) +0:17
- Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +1:08
- Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +3:44
- Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) +4:03
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +4:14
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +8:19
- Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-Hansgrohe) +8:26
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +10:08
- Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) +12:04
But before Kuss could slip into pleasure, he had to complete an extremely hard final stage, at least from the halfway point onwards. "It's unbelievable, today I suffered almost the most of the entire Vuelta. I'm glad it's over. It was harder than the Angliru for me today," explained Kuss, referring to the breakaway attempt initiated by Lennard Kämna and Nico Denz (both Bora-Hansgrohe) and carried through to the finish with prominent support.
"Our plan was to cause a bit of chaos with Lenny after the bonus sprint," said Denz with a smile. "I think he wanted to give his Vuelta a worthy end and then these strong riders joined us. Today was fun. It was a group of champions and I'm happy to have been part of it." In addition to stage winner Groves, Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) joined him. The Italian time trial world champion ultimately sprinted to second place - ahead of Denz.
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The fact that Groves, for whom a bunch sprint would probably have been the safe option for the stage win, joined the group was not planned. "We definitely wanted to win - but not out of an escape group. Remco was a danger and I already suspected that he was trying something to win the stage. I had to follow him," explained the 24-year-old. It didn't turn out to be a mistake in the end.
The top 10 of the day
- Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 2:24:13
- Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:00
- Nico Denz (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:00
- Hugo Page (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) +0:00
- Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar) +0:00
- Rui Costa (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) +0:00
- Marijn van den Berg (EF Eduaction EasyPost) +0:00
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - QuickStep) +0:00
- Dries Van Gestel (TotalEnergies) +0:00
- Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:00
Groves, Evenepoel and Ayuso take the jerseys
Groves won his third stage of this tour in Madrid, making him the most successful stage hunter of the Vuelta together with Evenepoel. The victory also means that the green jersey sits relatively securely on his shoulders. With 315 points, he is the first Australian to secure this classification in Spain. Evenepoel finished in second place with 236 points ahead of Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny) with 167 points.
Evenepoel, on the other hand, secured the mountains jersey much more clearly. With 135 points, he is miles ahead of Vingegaard (53) and Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ / 39) in 2nd and 3rd place.
Juan Ayuso won the white jersey relatively clearly, 4:48 minutes ahead of Cian Uijtebroeks and 6:38 minutes ahead of his team-mate Joao Almeida. The team classification went to Jumbo-Visma unchallenged. 229:42:26 hours were needed by the best three riders of each stage of the Dutch team for the tour. It took 21:09 minutes longer for Bahrain-Victorious33:07 minutes more for Bora-Hansgrohe.
A total of 148 riders finished the tour, 28 had to abandon en route. Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) took longer than Kuss to cover the more than 3100 kilometres in 4:32:55 hours.
This was the 21st stage of the 2023 Vuelta
After the start at the racecourse on the outskirts of Madrid, there was a lot of photography, a lot of waving and a lot of posters. After Jumbo-Visma had also drunk its champagne, the team then took on the task of leading the peloton on the nine final laps. This was the case around the middle of the 101-kilometre stage.
Alpecin-Deceuninck took over on the 5.8 kilometre circuit, which had to be completed nine times. At least until the intermediate sprint on the first lap, which Groves credited to his account. After that they attacked. Kämna, Denz and Rui Costa (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty). The trio really stepped on the gas, gaining a lead of up to half a minute.
Things got curious when shortly afterwards Evenepoel and Groves took the mountain jersey and the green jersey and Ganna followed suit with his team-mates Kim Heiduk and Omar Fraile. The two sacrificed themselves to bring the trio to the front and then dropped back. From then on, a sextet fought at the front.
At the back EF Education EasyPost most of the work, but also UAE Team Emirates and Team dsm-firmenich were working, sometimes even with climbers like Joao Almeida and Romain Bardet. In between, Geraint Thomas kept showing up for Ganna to cause a bit of a disturbance.
Apart from Denz, each of the sextet had already won a Vuelta stage, 13 Grand Tour stages in total this year, of which Denz also contributed two Giro victories. This concentrated class rarely had a lead of more than 20 seconds, but held it until the final lap.
It was only in the absolute final that the six began to play poker, so that the field had closed the gap 800 metres before the finish. But the pace was so high that no one could get past the best. With 500 metres to go, Evenepoel was forced to open the sprint, but was unable to carry it through to the end. Groves shot past him first. He had Ganna on his rear wheel - and that was that.
