There was a strange moment following Sunday’s second stage at the Vuelta a España when Wout van Aert (Visma – Lease a Bike) ended up with both the red leader’s jersey and the green points jersey, even though Kaden Groves, having won the stage, was actually the new points leader. This confusion arose because the organizers mistakenly classified the stage as a transition stage, where 30 points go to the winner and 25 to the second place. However, since it was a sprint stage, the correct points were 50 for the winner and 30 for second place.
Wout van Aert grabs Vuelta lead after Kaden Groves wins fifth career stage
Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Groves took his fifth career Vuelta win on Sunday’s second stage, triumphing over van Aert in a bunch sprint. Van Aert’s consolation was claiming the red jersey from American Brandon McNulty. Michael Woods avoided trouble and finished 29th, advancing 50 places in the general classification.
The stage started in Cascais, Portugal, and concluded 194 km later in Ourém. The route included one Cat. 4 climb early on and another Cat. 4 peak 19 km from the finish, with an uphill finish marking the end of the day.
“I actually knew that I wasn’t leading the points classification, but they insisted on putting me on the podium,” Van Aert said. “There are only a few stages categorized as true sprint stages where the first place earns 50 points and second place 30. I knew this, so I was quite sure that Groves would be ahead of me. But they said they had calculated it better. However, after I was on the podium, I saw on TV that they were actually wrong. Well, the red jersey is nicer, but I’m also definitely interested in the points jersey. It’s going to be an exciting battle.”
Groves wasn’t too worried, as he mentioned the next day. “Because I knew I would definitely wear the green jersey. The podium ceremony doesn’t matter much. It’s just a photo,” he said. “The most important thing is that I now have the points jersey.”
The Vuelta continues Monday with Stage 3 going from Lousã to Castelo Branco for a total of 191.2 km.
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