Kaden Groves takes sprint win in frantic and crash marred finale to stage 4 of the Vuelta a Espana

In the first bunch sprint finish of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, Alpecin-Deceuninck's Kaden Groves has emerged victorious to take the stage 4 victory in Tarragona.

On the fourth day of racing, the riders return to the coast. It will be a fast ride back into Tarragona near Barcelona, with the route having a slight downhill tilt, however with a couple of hilltops towards the finish that won't make life easy for the sprinters.

Just three riders went up the road in the day's breakaway, something that would have been a pretty sight for the sprint teams. Eduardo Sepúlveda (Lotto Dstny), Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH) and David González (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA).

The peloton wasn't in a generous mood, keeping the break within two minutes throughout the stage, clearly intent on insuring a sprint finale.

King of the Mountains jersey wearer, Sepulveda took maximum points at the first categorised climb of the day, taking full control of the classification Remco Evenepoel had started the day leading.

By the time Sepulveda had taken maximum points again at the second climb, the break's advantage had fallen to just 17 seconds and by 19km to go, the peloton had swallowed them all up.

From there, the GC teams began to try and take control at the front of the bunch in order to keep their Red Jersey hopefuls safe.

With 4.2km to go, there was a big crash with one of the potential stage winners Bryan Coquard and Santiago Buitrago looking in some discomfort.

Up front, the remaining sprinters began their navigation through a tricky and technical final few kilometres.

There was another late crash before Juan Sebastian Molano opened up his sprint early. As he began to tie up however, Kaden Groves was able to power around and take the win.

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