Groves seals thrilling win

AUSTRALIAN rising star Kaden Groves claimed a breakthrough win yesterday when he took out stage three of the Herald Sun Tour in a sprint finish at Wangaratta.

The 21-year-old rounded the final corner in fifth position and timed his sprint perfectly over the last 200m of the 178.1km stage to cross the line first.

Italian sprinter Alberto Dainese (Sunweb) won stage one but had to settle for second, while Mihkel Raim (Israel Start Up Nation) was third. It was Groves’ first win for Mitchelton-Scott since joining the Australian World Tour team in August.

It also ended a run of nearmisses for the team in men’s cycling since last month’s Tour Down Under.

“The team’s been working so well together and we’ve been close both stages, but today they fully committed to me and it’s pretty special to win,” Groves said. “To get a win at home is quite nice before going to Europe and racing the big guys.

“I’m stoked and I think the team rode really well today.”

The general classification standings remain the same after stage three, with Sunweb’s Jai Hindley retaining the yellow jersey. Hindley is four seconds clear of 2017 winner Damien Howson (Mitchelton-Scott) and six seconds ahead of Sebastian Berwick (St George).

The race’s queen stage today is a 106.6km trek from Mansfield that finishes with a gruelling climb up Mt Buller.

It is the final mountain-top finish before the race finishes in Melbourne tomorrow. ORGANISERS have revealed the route for the three Danish stages of the 2021 Tour de France, with the race set to travel further north than it has done before. It will begin in Copenhagen with a 13km individual time trial.