It’s taken 13 days, however Ben O’Connor lastly needed to bow to the inevitable on Friday, and after a tenacious combat to retain the Vuelta a España lead, the Australian cracked on the Alto de Moncalvillo.
O’Connor’s exit from the Vuelta’s prime spot had lengthy been anticipated, with some TV commentators already writing off his reign in crimson as quickly as stage 9 by way of the Sierra Nevada.
However as a substitute, the Australian has by no means thrown within the towel, and even on the ultra-difficult ascent to Lagos de Covadonga on Tuesday, he remained forward of Primož Roglič, albeit by solely 5 seconds.
That every one went up in smoke when the Australian – together with the remainder of the general contenders – was unable to reply when Roglič, supported by his two Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammates Aleksandr Vlasov and Dani Martínez, blasted away with 5 kilometres to go on stage 19 on the Alto de Moncalvillo.
After Vlasov and Martínez had executed their work to let Roglič solo to the end, O’Connor entered into most injury limitation mode. However as Enric Mas (Movistar) took off on his personal account, even staying with a gaggle containing Richard Carapaz (EF Training-EasyPost) proved an excessive amount of.
By the summit and together with his head shaking backward and forward, O’Connor had misplaced almost two minutes on Roglič, the most important time hole of any since he claimed the crimson jersey on stage 6.
“I used to be a bit damaged on the finish there, I truly felt fairly good till about half means up after which simply… [it’s] stage 19 I assume,” O’Connor advised reporters. He had not been so stunned, he stated, on the means Roglič and Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe had delivered such a crushing show of superiority with their three-rider assault, however as he stated, “I simply didn’t anticipate myself to be so unhealthy on the finish.”
The newest race content material, interviews, options, critiques and skilled shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
“I used to be a bit common, to be sincere, however I assume that’s simply the truth.”
Nonetheless in second general, with regards to the rostrum combat, his time lack of almost a minute on Mas and 46 seconds on Carapaz means the Spaniard and Ecuadorian are snapping at his heels.
However O’Connor stated that for now, no less than, his ideas have been extra about resting up after a super-hard Vuelta than how the remainder of the race might play out. As he put it, “Proper now, I’m eager about Monday and having beers and sitting on the terrace.
“I attempted at this time, however I didn’t actually do my greatest work,” he concluded. “So it’ll come right down to tomorrow [Saturday] and clearly we’ve got Sunday as properly. So there are nonetheless two crucial days to return.”
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the 2024 Vuelta a España – together with breaking information and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom from each stage because it occurs and extra. Discover out extra.
