MADRID, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won an uphill sprint to claim the second stage of the Vuelta a Espana cycling race on Sunday.

Groves finished inches ahead of Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech), although Van Aert moves into the overall leader's jersey thanks to time bonuses.

The 180-kilometer stage between Cascais and Ourem, was hilly, without being mountainous, but had very few flat zones, and ridden under unforgiving summer heat.

Perhaps because of the challenging conditions and with tougher mountain stages lying ahead, the peloton took a slow pace, causing the stage to finish almost an hour behind schedule.

Despite the easy pace, there was still a significant moment as Dylan van Baarle (Visma-Lease a Bike) fell in a feed zone, robbing last year's winner, Sepp Kuss and Van Aert of an important 'domestique'.

A two-man break got three minutes up the road but was reeled in with ease when the peloton finally upped its speed ahead of the second and final climb of the day.

A rapid final descent saw another fall, which left Jhonatan Narvaez and Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) both on the floor, with Tarling looking as if he had injured his left shoulder.

Monday sees another 'medium mountain' stage covering 191 kilometers between the Portuguese towns of Louso and Castelo Branco. Enditem

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