Kaden Groves for the fourth time on the podium but now leaves Giro d'Italia without stage victory: "In the end it just wasn't good enough"

Kaden Groves had the idea of adding more marks to his stage victory tally at Giro d'Italia, where he had already won in 2023. However Tim Merlier and Jonathan Milan were in a league of their own and the Alpecin-Deceuninck sprinter was left with 'just' few podium results.

"Who is the sprint king of this Giro? It's hard to say," responded Groves, before further explaining why is it tough to make the call. "Both Jonathan and Tim have won three times, but based on his consistent performances I would still say Jonathan. Every time he didn't win, he still finished second," he analyzes,

"It wasn't a difficult day," Groves told Cycling Pro Net in Rome. "Only a small leading group broke away, but on this technical lap it ended up going very fast, especially in the last two laps. In the final kilometer it went very quickly and I was in a good position, but in the end I got a bit trapped between the fences and Simone Consonni, while Tim van Dijke was also riding in front of me. That's why I couldn't really figure it out."

Groves previously stated that the stages in this Giro were not tailor-made for him, but how does he look back on his entire race? "I finished on the podium four times, so you show that you are consistent. But in the end it just wasn't good enough," he concluded.