"For a guy we don’t normally see do bunch sprints, that was impressive" - Filippo Ganna gains plaudits after running Kaden Groves close on stage 5 of La Vuelta

There isn't a great abundance of elite sprinters at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana. Kaden Groves has so far proven to be the dominant force, although on stage 5 he was run close by an unlikely rival, Filippo Ganna.

“He was incredibly close," said a somewhat surprised Daniel Lloyd on the Breakaway as part of Eurosport's coverage of the Vuelta a Espana. "He came from a long way back, and he had a bit of a jump on Kaden Groves in terms of the speed he was carrying, but that meant he had to come from a long way out. Kept gaining on him towards the line but it wasn’t enough for him to come past. For a guy we don’t normally see do bunch sprints, that was impressive.”

Had the line been a further 10 or 15 metres back, he might have got it but alas it was not to be for the Italian powerhouse. Does Ganna now have a future as a sprinter however? “He’s built like a house. It’s a lot of fun seeing him and it’s unusual," analyses Adam Blythe. "He's just come off the track, and he did a lot of preparation for the road TT, but he did the track before, you do a lot of speed, you get a lot of those fast twitch fibres going with those standing starts he’s doing.”

"Kaden Groves, it’s just a very simple sprint for him. He’s just sat on that wheel, coming out of that last corner, he had no one challenging, nobody coming up to try to move him," continues Blythe. “He just had to follow one wheel, he had time to look around, and then start his sprint. The like of Ganna and Van Gestel, it’s a lot harder for them to do that."