Different realities coexist in the cycling peloton. It is an amalgamation of ambitions, interests and forces. Also wallet. There are those who want to control everything, who prefer nothing to happen until the big stages arrive, like the Jumbo in this Vuelta. There are those who have to be seen almost out of obligation, who need to be noticed and become the perfect cheerleaders for the race. And then those who practically win out of habit stand out, who arrive drunk and for them getting on the podium is almost a routine. Wonderful habit for which you need to be very good. The Alpecin team lives in a constant celebration. In the Vuelta he left his mark again, already in the first sprint, with Kaden Groves, the fastest ahead of the Colombian Molano (UAE).
The Australian has taken over from his teammate Philipsen who won four massive finishes –the first four– of the Tour de France.
Groves, a 24-year-old powerhouse sprinter, appears touched by a wand. He may not be in the first echelon of sprinters at the moment but he has participated in three grand tours and in all three he has inscribed his name in the book of winners. He already won last year in the Vuelta, in Cabo de Gata, when he was still racing in the BikeExchange, and this same year, already with the Alpecin blue jersey, he also scored the volata in the Giro the day he arrived in Salerno .
The team led by brothers Christoph and Philip Roodhooft have completed nine grand tours, winning at least one stage. They are three years in a row (2021, 2022 and 2023) doing the Giro-Tour-Vuelta trilogy. A case worth studying.
Because there was a day when Alpecin did not belong to the first division of cycling, which was content to compete in the races in its area, Belgium and the Netherlands, which did not call it for the three-week races but sheltered from a great star like Mathieu van der Poel, current world champion, in their ranks, knew how to make the leap. With sprinters like Merlier or Philipsen but also with good stage hunters like Oldani, De Bondt or Vine.
The objectives and life of Alpecin bear little resemblance to those of Caja Rural and Burgos, the two UCI ProTeam teams invited by the Vuelta. They look for needles in a haystack. They try every day, day in and day out, even knowing that the universe is hardly going to smile at them. In the morning they go on an adventure, with a point of kamikaze, with blind obedience. In the second stage they put Joel Nicolau and Jetse Bol in the breakaway, respectively. In the third, Jon Barrenetxea and Juan Manuel Díaz test it. This Tuesday it was the turn of David González and Ander Okamika, without caring that the sprinters were hungry in this very mountainous Vuelta.
At 40 km from the finish line, the peloton has them half a minute away. They know that they are not going anywhere, that they are cannon fodder. But they don’t give up. At 19, after Valls, they are neutralized. The big prize will go to Alpecin, once again.
