After finishing third in his first sprint of the season on the opening stage of the Tour of Oman, Australian youngster Kayden Groves finished second on the second day of racing at the Suhar Corniche in a brilliant sprint by Mark Cavendish (Quick Step - Alpha Vinyl) He moved up to second place behind ...

The 23-year-old, starting his third season with Bike Exchange Jayco, is riding for a young team in Oman with only Cameron Meyer over 25 years old.

A team of seven, including two 2022 neo-pros, led Groves to his second podium in two days in a field that included first stage winner Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates).

The 167.5-km race along the northeast coast was tough for the riders, but this flat stage was a sprint finish.

After the awards ceremony, where he once again wore the white Young Riders jersey, Groves said that although there was no way to beat Cavendish along the coast on Friday, he was able to add another good result to his early season collection.

"Yeah, it was a pretty good day. It was a pretty risky job. We were pretty late, but it paid off and it was really good in such a small peloton," Groves said. 'It worked out in the end, and we had the numbers for the final.'

"Maybe we were a little bit early. So I decided to drop back behind Gaviria. But Mark was too fast for me. ......"

Groves said he lost some positions in the peloton on the final corner before the finish straight, where a crosswind blew in, although the breakup did not occur as expected before the stage.

"I thought I was a little too far forward and lost some positions in the right and left corners with a mile and a half to go. 'But I was able to stay in that position, so I wasn't stressed, and all I had to do was wait for them to run up behind me.'

"It wasn't too bad to start a bit further back.

Groves also praised his teammates, including neo-pros Kelland O'Brien and Campbell Stewart, who were playing together for the first time on the sprint train. While there are challenging days ahead in the hills and mountains, they will get one last chance to lead the sprint on stage 6, Tuesday's finale at Matra Corniche.

"It's my first race with Kell and Campbell, they're both track athletes so they'll be a force here and it's really nice to build this relationship.

"Hopefully we can continue to work together and we've already done two sprints and done a really good job. So I feel good about the rest of the year."