Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck): "It’s a really nice way to start this Vuelta. It’s been a hard year for myself, I hadn’t won yet this season. I came super motivated to change that and I have to thank my team for a super strong rider today. Following Wout van Aert was not originally the plan but my two lead-out men, Edward [Planckaert] and Maurice [Ballerstedt] had problems with their bikes so I missed both in the final. Normally, I think Wout would have followed me but in the end I had to go the opposite. I had an injury in the spring and missed a lot of racing. I returned to a really good level for the Giro but in the end it was not fast enough to beat Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier. That kept me really motivated to work real hard. It was really incredibly important for my team to perform today. They come here to support me but this year’s parcours is really really quite difficult. I felt really big pressure to perform today."
