Kaden Groves raises his arms one year later in Sabadell

March 23 rd 2023 - 23:39 [GMT + 1]

Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was the winner of the 4th stage of the Volta a Catalunya 2023, a stage of 188.2 kilometres starting in Llívia and finishing in Sabadell. The Australian, who in the last edition had already been the fastest in another sprint finish of the Volta in Perpinyà, won ahead of Bryan Coquard and Corbin Strong on the day before the finish in Lo Port, in which the leader Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) have arrived tied on time.

The town of Llívia hosted the start of the fourth stage of the Volta a Catalunya, the longest of this edition. The 188.2 kilometres route would take the riders through the ramps of La Molina (1st category), the Alt del Collet de Sant Agustí (3rd category) and the Coll de Lligabosses (3rd category) before arriving in Sabadell, which would host the end of the stage.

The first kilometres of the route were marked by constant attacks in search of a hard-fought breakaway. It was not until after the first 40 kilometres of the stage, and already on the descent of the Collada de Tosses, when a group of escapees formed that would be the protagonist of the day. David de la Cruz (Astana Qazaqstan Team) wanted to look for the victory at his home city and was part of the breakaway of the day together with Roger Adrià (Team Kern Pharma), Nans Peters (AG2R Citroën Team), Christopher Juul-Jensen (Team Jayco-AlUla) and Torstein Traen (Uno-X Pro Cycling).

Several teams collaborated in the big group to chase down a leading quintet that was three minutes ahead. The narrow and twisty roads of the second half of the stage, with constant ups and downs, complicated the chase and it was not until four kilometres from the finish line, at the entrance of Sabadell, when the race regrouped.

Alpecin-Deceuninck, with one of the top favourites for the victory in their ranks, took control of the last kilometre and made a high level lead up to Kaden Groves, who ended up winning the stage ahead of Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and Corbin Strong (Israel - Premier Tech). The Australian sprinter has raised his arms for the second consecutive edition of the Volta a Catalunya, after the victory he took a year ago in Perpinyà.

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) has kept the lead with the same time as Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), in a stage that has not made any difference in the general classification. In the mountains classification, Frenchman Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) scored on the first climb of the day and became the new leader.

The race is now preparing for a new mountain finish on Friday, in a stage that will run entirely through the Terres de l'Ebre. The start will be in Tortosa, a town historically very linked to the Volta, being the start or finish of a stage up to 68 times and seeing great names such as Mariano Cañardo, Miquel Poblet, Federico Martín Bahamontes, Sean Kelly or Mario Cipollini win. The ramps of Lo Port will decide the stage winner in a climb that will take place for the fourth time in the history of the Volta. So far, Alirio Chizabas (1985), Lucho Herrera (1991) and Alejandro Valverde (2017) have won.

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