PONTARLIER, France — Australian Kaden Groves completed his set of grand tour stage wins when he prevailed on the Tour de France’s penultimate ride, avoiding a crash on slippery roads before powering to a solo triumph on the 184.2km journey from Nantua on Saturday.
Groves’ bike-handling skills were on display when he managed to stay up as Spain’s Ivan Romeo and France’s Romain Gregoire skidded out of control in front of him on a wet descent 21 kilometers from the finish.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider then attacked from a reduced breakaway bunch and never looked back in the remaining 17 kilometers, bursting into tears in a mix of disbelief and exhaustion after the line.
Groves, who gave his team their third victory in this year’s Tour after Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel also won, has seven Vuelta and two Giro d’Italia stage wins to his name.
The 26-year-old, who is used to winning from bunch sprints, was beaming with pride after a memorable ride.
“There’s so much pressure at the Tour, and having won in the Giro, having won in the Vuelta, all I ever get asked is am I good enough to win in the Tour? And now I show them,” Groves said.
“It’s my first time winning, so it’s pretty incredible.”
Dutchman Frank van den Broek took second place, 54 seconds behind, with his compatriot Pascal Eenkhoorn third, five seconds further back.
Defending champion Tadej Pogačar spent a quiet day in the main peloton and took another step towards a fourth Tour title as he retained his overall leader’s yellow jersey with a 4:24 advantage over Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard and will celebrate victory if he avoids crashing on Sunday.
The final stage is a 132.3km ride from Mantes-la-Jolie to Paris, where the peloton will cycle up the famous Butte Montmartre three times before the final laps on the Champs-Elysees.
