Tourist
KADEN GROVES wins the 20th stage in Pontarlier As a soloist. The Australian is actually a sprinter and came to Jasper Philipsen as a driver Tour de France. After his failure, he had to find himself again – with success.
Around 150 meters behind the destination shook Kaden Grove Still the head. The face was largely hidden behind the large glasses, but it was still clear that the Australian had broken out into tears – overwhelmed by his own act.
Groves is a sprinter, a very successful one. Seven stage wins at the Vuelta à España and two at Giro d’Italia he already had to show. Since Saturday (July 25th, 2025) there has also been a day’s success at the Tour de France in his Palmarès.
Sportschau Tourfunk, 07/26/2025 8:54 p.m.
But GroVes did not achieve this victory in the mass sprint, but as a runaway on a stage in the low mountain range after a 16 -kilometer long solo ride. “Grauen”“It was, GroVes said afterwards. “I suffered a lot, but thanks to the announcements from the team vehicle, I tried to stay calm.”
The plan that the sporting director does not even believe in
About 1.7 kilometers before the finish Christoph Roodhooftthe sporting director of the AlpecinDeceuninckrolled by car next to his driver and had asked him to enjoy. But he didn’t succeed at all, said Groves, “Because I heard about the noise of the spectators that the radio didn’t hear. I knew I have 30, 40 seconds ahead and drove as hard as I could. It was my first time.”
In fact, Grove was not the driver, whom you would have set first that day, who was perhaps the last chance for a stage victory for so many teams. Accordingly, it took around 90 kilometers for a permanent outlier group to form.
Groves was there and that actually corresponded to the team’s morning plan. “We knew more or less that this lies in his possibilities”said Roodhooft. “But if I’m honest, I didn’t really believe it.” Basically, however, Garroves is more than just a sprinter, it is not for nothing that it also belongs in races such as the cobblestone classicRoubaix To the squad.
Suddenly the gap opens
Nevertheless, everything had to go together on this day. A fall around 20 kilometers before the finish on a rain -wet road reduced the outlaw group to a trio, to which, in addition to Grove Jake Stewart and Frank van den Broek belonged. The Belgian signaled his colleagues that he would not take any leadership work, given the sprint thickness of the other.
Kaden Grove at the rainy 20th stage of the Tour de France
“Absolutely understandable”Groves found that and was therefore all the more surprised when he suddenly had a gap. “I only drove my lead and when I looked around, I had 50 or 100 meters and then I drove as hard as I could.“
Role change in ongoing operation
With his success, Grove is now part of the group of those drivers who have won a stage in all three major national tours. And even if the 26-year-old in Pontarlier said that it was one of his career goals, it was certainly not the project with which he started this tour.
He was planned as a driver for the world -class printer Jasper Philipsen, who in exactly three weeks earlier Lille had won the first stage and the first yellow jersey – with a perfect one Leadout His team and not least from Grove. “I didn’t take it lightly to drive for Jasper”he said in Pontarlier. Since the beginning of the season, he had prepared for months with the idea of making it perfect in Lille. “And to this day it was one of the highlights of my career to get the yellow jersey with Jasper.”
Philipsen fell heavily two days later and left with a broken collarbone. From then on, Garroves himself had to give the sprinter for Alepcin-Deceuninck, an above all mentally difficult change like Grove shortly after Philipsens admitted: “And now I have won my first stage on the tour as a soloist, that’s strange to me.”
A tour of the up and down
For his team, a tour ends that began to fall into a hole. After Philipsen’s stage win, won Mathieu van der Poel The 2nd stage in Boulogne sur mer And took over the yellow jersey from his teammate. A day later, Philipsen was out and Van der Poel also had to leave the race after the second day of rest with pneumonia.
“All of this was not easy for the team as a whole”said the sporting director Roodhooft. “But we found our focus and our goals. And today it happened.” With KADEN GROVES, the most unlikely winner that was expected on this stage.