Everything seemed to be set up for a third showdown between Kaden Groves and Wout van Aert on stage 5 of the 2024 Vuelta a Espana in Seville. In the end though, neither took the plaudits as Pavel Bittner stunned both to take the biggest win of his budding career.
"It's unbelievable. Only a few days ago I got my first pro win," reflected the 21-year-old Czech, who entered his Grand Tour debut off the back of two stage wins at the Vuelta a Burgos earlier in the month. "To get the win in my first Vuelta, I still don't believe it."
With Van Aert launching early and Groves a little boxed in, Bittner took advantage to fire to the win in an incredibly tight finale that went to the photo finish. "If we look at the last few years, I think with DSM, we've done a big portion of work. A lot of work went into this, a lot of people, and especially in the final kilometres, the whole team was working really, really good," he assesses afterwards.
"To beat Wout in a long sprint, he's one of the best long sprinters in the world, it's just crazy," Bittner concludes in disbelief. "I told the guys, 'Today we can really do it. Guys, I really believe in myself.' When the opportunity opened, I just opened my sprint and went full gas to the line."
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