Australia's top road sprinter is back on the Grand Tour stage-winning hunt -- and Kaden Groves even hopes his rejuvenation could transport him into the pink at the Giro d'Italia.
Back in action and feeling confident after a season interrupted so far by a knee injury, the speedster from Gympie is the key hope for his Alpecin-Premier Tech team at the season's opening grand tour which begins in Bulgaria on Friday.
In the absence of their star men Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen, the Belgian team is throwing strong sprint support resources behind the Queenslander, trusting in him to once again produce the goods despite the knee trouble that forced him to miss the spring classics campaign.
He hasn't raced for over two months since the patella knock which he suffered in a crash in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad race at the start of March and which developed into a friction injury, but he doesn't intend to be hanging around with a big prize on offer in his comeback race on the Bulgarian coast on Friday.
"We already look at stage one as a possibility for a bunch sprint, so we go for it straight away," Groves, who has another Australian, Jensen Plowright, in his powerful sprint train, told his team's official website.
No Australian has worn the pink jersey since Jai Hindley, who's also competing for Red Bull-BORA hansgrohe this year, became the only Aussie winner of the Giro back in 2022.
Groves has won 10 stages and a couple more would take the 27-year-old past Caleb Ewan (11) to second alone on the Australian all-time winners' list, behind only Robbie McEwen, who prevailed 24 times.
"I've been rebuilding at altitude with the team and I've arrived here in Bulgaria at a good level. I feel happy, ready to go, and we have a strong team around me," said Groves, who won one stage and was runner-up twice at the race last year.
The competition will be red hot for that initial pink, as well as the 'ciclamino' points jersey, though, with home powerhouse Jonathan Milan identified by Groves as the favourite.
"He already has the experience here, but with guys like (Frenchman Paul) Magnier, (Denmark's Tobias Lund) Andresen, (Belgian Arnaud) De Lie and some others, including myself, it's going to be a really strong sprint field."
