'My first solo win' - Tearful Groves surprises himself at Tour

Kaden Groves never expected to be in this position, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know what to do when he got there. The Australian is one of the finest sprinters in the peloton, but when he found himself in the winning break on stage 20 of the Tour de France to Pontarlier, he simply adapted to the circumstances.

It was clear that Groves was the fastest finisher in the move, but all afternoon, he looked to be the strongest man there too. When his last remaining companions Frank van der Broek (Picnic-PostNL) and Jake Stewart allowed a gap to open with 16km to go, Groves didn’t stand on ceremony.

There were shades of Djamolidine Abdoujaparov in Tulle on the 1996 Tour about this one, as a sprinter soloed to victory on a day for the break. Groves powered clear in the rain to claim Alpecin-Deceuninck’s third stage win of this Tour, completing his own full set of Grand Tour stage wins in the process. 

“I have so many emotions to win here,” Groves said afterwards, his eyes red with tears. “The team we came here with Jasper [Philipsen] and Mathieu [van der Poel]. Then in the end, I got my own opportunities, and they haven’t gone the right way. Today I had super legs, and I just suffered to the line and in reward we get a Tour stage.”

Groves was reportedly on the brink of signing for Astana last summer, but he surprised many by opting to renew with Alpecin-Deceuninck for two more years. With Philipsen in situ as the team’s number one sprinter, most expected Groves to move elsewhere for greater opportunities after amassing wins at the Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia over the preceding two years. 

Groves, however, was persuaded that his ambitions could co-exist with those of Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel. After picking up another sprint win at the Giro in May, he came to his debut Tour de France as Philipsen’s deluxe lead-out man.

Alpecin’s big two of Philipsen and Van der Poel duly picked up stage wins on the first two days of the Tour and Groves look set to be confined to a supporting role. His Tour changed dramatically a day later, however, when Philipsen crashed out of the race.

Groves was immediately promoted to the lead the team’s sprint challenge, but opportunities were hard to come by. His best result was third in Laval on stage 8 and by the end of week two, he had changed tack, going in the break on the road to Carcassonne on stage 15. The withdrawal of Van der Poel through illness at the beginning of the third week changed Groves’ race still further. 

“The team gave me the free role the last days,” Groves said. “Today we weren’t sure whether to go for the stage with myself or save it for tomorrow. But when the rain starts to fall, I usually have a super feeling in the cold. It’s my first time ever winning solo and it’s in a Tour stage and it’s pretty incredible.”

The move took some time to get clear, but when it did, the obvious dangerman were Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). Groves sagely guessed that they might cancel one another out, and so it proved, but he still had plenty of work to do to claim the spoils, including avoiding Ivan Romeo’s crash with 20km remaining.

“I tried to play my cards right to get in early move, and the uphill start was really difficult,” Groves said.

“Once I made the break, it was about making the final selection. I knew Jorgenson and Wellens would probably watch each other, so of course I tried to distance myself from them. After the crash, Van der Broek goes full, so I close that, and then he and Jake Stewart watch each other. I had a gap with 16km to go so I rode full until the final 200m.”

Groves had won seven stages at the Vuelta a España over the years, as well as two points classifications, and he had also claimed Giro d’Italia wins in Salerno (2023) and Naples (2025), but he didn’t make his Tour debut until this year.

“It’s not really a childhood dream because I only started cycling so late,” he said. “But there’s so much pressure in the Tour, and having won the in the Giro and the Vuelta, I was always asked if I was good enough to win at the Tour. Now I’ve shown them.”