Kayden Groves (Team BikeExchange), a two-time Tirreno-Adriatico podium finisher, said he is back from an injury-induced hiatus in 2021 and ready to compete with and perhaps even beat the top sprinters in the peloton in the near future. He expressed confidence.

2. The 23-year-old, who has two second places and one third in the Pro Rank Tour of Oman, took his first WorldTour podium on the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. In the sprint contest on stage 7, the time difference between the top three was only one wheel.

"My legs were tired today, and especially Michael [Matthews] took a good position in the end," Groves told reporters after the stage.

"I had some bad luck at a dangerous chicane and lost some positions, but my form and speed in the final gave me confidence.

Groves clearly had the pace, but his early position at the line-in was not ideal. Groves found clean air with less than 50 meters to go, swung to the right, and passed just behind final stage winner Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), who was only 1 cm behind second-place finisher Giacoma Nizzolo (Israel Premier Tech).

Groves, who signed with the team in late 2019, has already been on the podium five times this season, and his sprinting ability adds another strong card to the growing BikeExchange-Jayco sprint deck. The team brings back Matthews, who prefers selective sprinting to group battles, to the team for 2021, while Dutch sprinter Dylan Groenewegen is a late addition for 2022.

Groenewegen, who showed he was going from strength to strength last September by winning the opening prologue of the 1.6km Tour of Slovakia, heads to Milan-Torino looking for his first European sprint win.