Vuelta a Espana: Primoz Roglic survives late drama as Kaden Groves edges Wout van Aert in epic Stage 14 sprint duel

Primoz Roglic hit bad luck on Stage 14 as he suffered a puncture on the final descent that threatened to lose him time on red jersey Ben O'Connor, before ultimately dragging himself back into the bunch. The day's break was caught close to the top of the final climb, before Kaden Groves outsprinted Wout van Aert in fine style to take the stage victory.

Vuelta a Espana Stage 14 highlights: Groves beats Van Aert after late Roglic scare

Video credit: TNT Sports

Wout van Aert's Visma-Lease a Bike colleagues controlled Stage 14 from flag drop to finale, only for their leader to be denied a fourth stage win on the line by a flawless fast finish from Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

The Dutch team kept the breakaway on a short lead for its 200km length, including the full distance of the 22km final climb.

That allowed Groves and his team-mates to hide in the wheels and save energy, before taking over at the front on the descent and setting up the Australian for a second victory in this year's Vuelta.

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Though the general classification battle was largely put on pause for the day, the descent into Villablino saw a moment of drama as Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) suffered a puncture and had to chase back on riding a spare bike.

'That was absolutely amazing!' - Groves pips Van Aert in two-up sprint showdown

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Set in the shallow hills of Leon, north-west Spain, the longest stage of the race seemed to have been purposely designed for Van Aert.

Though it still held a total of almost 3000m of climbing, most of that was contained within a single 22km drag, the gradients of which rarely rose above 5%.

Visma-Lease a Bike certainly felt it suited their man down to the ground, and no-one else in the bunch was willing to challenge that assumption. The Dutch squad parked their men on the front of the main pack as soon as a satisfactory six-rider breakaway had been established.

The group, comprising Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates), Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin Deceuninck), Marco Frigo (Israel Premier Tech), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) and Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan), was never allowed a lead of more than 2’30''.

On the flatter first 160km, Edoardo Affini and Robert Gesink took it in turns at the front of the bunch, their supremacy seldom appearing under threat despite the top-tier strength of the riders up the road.

Over the course of the stage, the sextet’s advantage veered between 90 seconds and two minutes. Van Aert, who leads the mountains classification as well as holding a healthy lead in the green jersey competition, might have instructed them to be brought back before the intermediate.

Instead they were left to dangle, the lead only beginning a slip once onto the long final ascent of the Puerto de Leitariegos. That was when the climbers of them, Frigo, Tejada and Narvaez came to the fore, as Campenaerts, Meurrisse and Del Toro slipped away.

Visma’s own climbing domestique, Cian Uijtdebroeks, set a strong tempo up the climb, but it was neither hard enough to finish off the breakaway, nor to see many of Van Aert’s rivals shelled from the peloton.

'What drama here!' - Roglic suffers fright after late puncture

Video credit: TNT Sports

Narvaez launched a fiery solo flourish some seven kilometres from the summit, and was only reeled in with three kilometres of the stage remaining.

That might have been the moment Van Aert was expected to either attack or push the pace to the peloton’s breaking point. He did neither, instead opting to roll over the top for the maximum mountains points, before rejoining the bunch for the run to Villablino.

No-one cared to attack or take risks on the descent. The only dramatic event was a puncture for Roglic, which saw him take a replacement bike and be forced to fight his way back to the bunch.

On the run-in to the line, Alpecin-Deceuninck emerged in formation, unexpectedly called upon to organise into a lead-out train for Groves. They managed it in a flash, Edward Planckaert the last man in the line to propel the Australian to the line.

As he has several times before in this race, Van Aert launched his sprint first. Groves was faster. The Belgian rider kicked to his right, Groves gave himself a moment more in the wheel before joining the drag race to the line, and winning the stage on the throw.

'Pretty awesome' to have 'man-on-man drag race' with Van Aert - Groves

Video credit: TNT Sports

Groves said after the finish that he had not "actually expected today to be a sprint," and he was delighted "to win a man-on-man sprint against Wout."

His explanation for the stage concluding as it did was that "[Visma] rode a really high pace and no-one attacked. My team-mates also got over with me, which meant we could control the finish. Today I didn't hesitate. I think I did a pretty good sprint, and it felt like a bit of a drag race against Wout but in the end it was good enough to beat him."

The general classification saw no significant changes at the top of the order. The battle for the red jersey is expected to resume in earnest on Sunday, with the second week finishing on the steep slopes of Ciutu Negru.