U23 men’s road race Recap: kadeN groVes Puts on a gallant display

Australia’s Kaden Groves finished fourteenth in the under 23 men’s road race at the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire on Friday.

Groves (Mitchelton-Scott), Samuel Jenner (Team Wiggins Le Col), Liam Magennis (Drapac-Cannondale Holistic Development Team), Harry Sweeny (EvoPro Racing) and Nicholas White (Team BridgeLane)​​ took on the 173km race which began in Doncaster in dry weather, before strong crosswinds and driving rain took their toll on the peloton across the first 100-kilometres.

A number of attacks and breakaways were mixed with a litany of crashes, before the punishing climb of Greenhow Hill (3.4km at 7.8 per cent) brought the field back together with fifty kilometres remaining.

On the descent, Groves took his position in a breakaway group of 23 riders which remained together for the twenty-five kilometre run into Harrogate.

As the group hit the first of two laps of the 14-kilometre town circuit, two riders broke away, and with Groves forced to do the brunt of the work in the chasing group, a further five riders pounced on the penultimate lap.

The seven riders merged and in a thrilling sprint finish, Nils Eekhoff (Netherlands) took the line honours and celebrated his world title, before sensationally being disqualified an hour later after commissaires deemed the Dutchman had drafted behind his team car following a mid-race crash.

Samuele Battistella (Italy) was then crowned the world champion, with Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland) and Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) elevated to silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Groves contested the bunch sprint for seventh, ultimately finishing 14th some 38 seconds behind the leaders.

“The teams with multiple riders were setting a hard pace, it was pretty relentless pace really,” said Groves of the final thirty kilometres. “It was a hard circuit as it was, and the way it was raced with the attacks the race just split up a lot.

“But the team was great today, all the boys held their positioning. But we had some bad luck with Sam puncturing at the foot of the climb, and then having to use Nick up the climb, and when the group split at the end, it was just hard to come back.”

“It was brutal, you couldn’t relax at any time,” said Liam Magennis post-race. “We kept Kaden up there in pretty good condition all day and stayed away from the crashes coming into the important part of the race- , the climb.

“Kaden climbed really well and was in the final selection heading into the final laps of the circuit. He just missed it, but he rode out of his skin.

“Everyone did their job perfectly, we all gave our all.”