One image probably summed up Ben O’Connor’s stoic defence of his Vuelta a España lead on its hardest mountain stage to date – the moment when the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale leader blasted across the finish line in Granada to claim third on the day, and four bonus seconds into the bargain.
The minimal time regained by O’Connor in Granada will almost certainly be irrelevant come the finish in Madrid in two weeks’ time. But on a day when for some, but not all, race observers thought his loss of the red jersey had been all but taken for granted, to be able to get the upper hand on his rivals, albeit briefly, must have felt like the icing on an already tasty cake.
Despite their lack of recent race experience in defending Grand Tour leads – the previous time for Decathlon was in the 2009 Tour de France – O’Connor’s team did everything expected of them, and more, in the mountains of Sierra Nevada.
Even while arch-rivals Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe kept up a steady pace on the first two ascents of the day, in anticipation of a Primož Roglič attack that never materialised, O’Connor remained fully supported. Then on the last crunch ascent of Hazallanas and all the way to the finish in Granada, key wingman and climbing ace Felix Gall was still there to back up the Australian.
After Saturday’s unexpectedly large time loss at Cazorla, ceding nearly a minute to Roglič on a single steep 5km climb, O’Connor had hardly been in the most upbeat of moods at the stage 8 finish. But 24 hours later Granada, he was visibly in a much better place as he donned his fourth red jersey of the race.
“I felt much more up to what I know I can do,” O’Connor said. “We had a great day today as a team, and I showed I’m not going to be pushed over for this red jersey. It was much better than yesterday.
“I’m not concerned that Adam Yates won today, he spends a lot of time down here, so it was kind of nice and fitting for him. We let him in the break today because he wasn’t an ‘absolute must’ [to chase down] on our radar. So all credit to him.”
O’Connor said that although he knew the ascents of El Purche and Hazallanas very well from repeat altitude training camps at Sierra Nevada, it wasn’t necessarily an advantage as “everybody knows them, so that doesn’t change anything”.
“The worst was Monachil” – the alternative name for El Purche, the first climb of the day – “because I don’t know why but I always feel terrible on it. But I love the finishing circuit.”
O’Connor said he had been surprised at Carapaz’s spectacular long-distance move, attacking with no less than 90 kilometres to go, particularly as “it was so hot and we were all a bit cooked at the foot of the last climb.”
But he also paid credit to his team’s stellar collective performance saying he was “super happy with how we rode, we were really composed and we led from the front when we needed to. Felix was excellent today, so it shows we’re still here to fight.
“Every second counts, and I didn’t lose time today – to some guys yes, but in the end I showed a real capacity for what I can do. So I’m proud.”
Saturday’s setback was not something O’Connor had bargained for, but thanks to Sunday’s stronger-than-expected defence, not to mention that four-second time bonus, his overall advantage is still standing tall at 3:53.
Globally, then the Australian’s weekend performance on the climbs of southern Spain can only be qualified as a major success – and one which means he will continue to be a major GC player as the Vuelta now heads north.
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