Wout van Aert was beaten in the sprint by Australian Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) on Saturday at the end of the 14th stage of the Vuelta a España. “I’m disappointed, because it’s a shame to miss out on the victory after the work the team has shown,” the Visma-Lease a Bike rider told Eurosport.
The Visma-Lease a Bike team set the pace on the long climb of the Puerto de Leitariegos. “I expected it to be more difficult,” explained Van Aert. “Of course it wasn’t easy, but it was possible to stay in the wheels. The sprinters didn’t drop out. I still had confidence in my sprint, but I had a cramp in the last 50 meters. And Kaden was also a bit stronger.”
Van Aert had spent Friday on the attack, which allowed him to take the white jersey with blue polka dots for best climber. This may have cost him energy in the final. “It’s possible. Yesterday was difficult, but it was also a beautiful day. It’s never easy to win a Grand Tour. What the team did today is magnificent. No other team controlled the race. We did it and we had a sprint. It’s a shame that I couldn’t finish the job. But I scored points for the mountains classification, I’m happy.”