Kaden Groves has earned his first professional win in European cycling and given Team BikeExchange the perfect start to the Tour of Slovakia by edging to victory in the race prologue.
The promising 22-year-old sprinter was the last rider down the start ramp for his Australian team and blasted around the short 1.6km course on the streets of central Kosice in 1 minute 50.46 seconds to snatch the win.
Groves was a mere 0.32 seconds ahead of runner-up Jannik Steimle (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), the defending champion, with Marceli Boguslawski (Mazowsze Serce Polski) third.
“It’s a big relief, it’s been a long day today waiting for my turn, I was the last to go in the team,” Groves said.
“I just listened to the guys who had gone before, did what they said and I’m very, very happy to come away today with the win.”
