Kaden Groves won a thrilling sprint finish to take the 17th stage of the Vuelta a España 2024, as Australians dominated a rain-drenched day of racing through northern Spain on Wednesday.

Groves' fellow Australian Ben O'Connor of the Decathlon team held the overall race lead with a five-second advantage on Slovenian three-time champion Primoz Roglic.

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A third Australian, Jay Vine of UAE Team Emirates, held on to the polka-dot jersey for the best climber.

Groves, riding for the Alpecin Deceuninck team, pipped Czech Pavel Bittner of DSM with Belgian Vito Braet of Intermarche-Wanty third after the 142-kilometer run from Arnuero to Santander.

For Groves, it was his third stage win in this year's race and seventh in the Vuelta.

With Belgian Wout Van Aert out of the race after suffering a painful knee injury Tuesday, Groves is the favorite for the top sprinters green jersey.

"It was quite a tough day, starting dry and then the majority of the finish wet," Groves told Eurosport at the finish. "It made it quite dangerous out there. My team were so strong. They had a really super day. To repay them with win No. 3 is pretty special."

Four riders had led the peloton for a long time, but Frenchmen Thomas Champion and Thibault Guernalec, Dane Jonas Gregaard and Spaniard Xavier Isasa were caught three kilometers from the line.

The fight for the leader's red jersey remains tight, with O'Connor only five seconds ahead of Roglic. Spaniard Enric Mas is third at 1minute, 25 seconds, and Colombian Richard Carapaez is fourth at 1:46.

"Tomorrow, even if we're talking about a transition stage again, we will surely have to control the race more because of probable breakaways but the final suits me rather well," O'Connor said.

Thursday's 18th stage heads east toward the Basque country for a medium mountain stage covering 179.5 kilometers to Maeztu, before the decisive mountaintop finishes on Friday and Saturday and the final time trial in Madrid on Sunday.

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