On an exceptionally glorious day for him, Ben O'Connor achieved an insane double success in the Vuelta. The Australian leader of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale won the sixth stage after a long breakaway and claimed the red from Primoz Roglic. The peloton finished well behind, giving O'Connor a comfortable lead in the GC for the next few days. Gijs Leemreize helped shape the day and finished sixth.
Thursday's stage was a treat in advance: no high mountains, but four cols and thus an extensive list of potential favorites in southern Spain. The obvious choice was a breakaway group, including some names aiming for the red jersey. After all, Primoz Roglic had signaled he was pretty willing to give away his jersey and thus surrender the burden of the lead in the race.
A furious opening phase followed, in which virtually the entire peloton seemed to have caught on to these words. Many teams set up attacks; no one got away in the first 30 kilometers. Josh Tarling, Wout van Aert, and favorite Andreas Kron—we all saw them in action. However, it didn't work out. Joao Almeida struggled to turn on his diesel. He was briefly riding behind but eventually came back.
Everybody wanted to be in front; O'Connor and Lipowitz tricky contenders
Next, a group of 33 managed to make a gap. This included Kron, who was still short in the classification; also of note, among many others, are Marc Soler, Dani Martinez, Gijs Leemreize, Cristian Rodriguez, Pelayo Sanchez, Victor Campenaerts, Tarling, and Filippo Zana. However, they, too, failed to get a decisive gap. None other than Thymen Arensman and Ben O'Connor interfered in a chase. This gave Antonio Tiberi a hard time; he could barely catch on in this phase.
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On top of the first climb of the first category, there was a start to a realistic breakaway. Twelve men made it: O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R) as well as his teammate Clément Berthet, stayed in front, as did Rodriguez (Arkéa), Leemreize (dsm-firmenich), Jay Vine (UAE), Florian Lipowitz (Red-Bull BORA), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), Luca Vergallito (Alpecin), Sanchez (Movistar), Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Mauri Vansevenant (T-Rex Quick-Step) and the Equipo core duo of Pablo Castrillo and Urko Berrade. At first, their lead remained small until Red Bull closed in, and it quickly grew to five minutes.
Teams in the peloton got nervous, Leemreize along at the head of the race
A status quo phase followed this, although O'Connor got nervous early on. On paper, the number four of the Giro was the most dangerous GC rider at the front, and he seemed to realize this. Soon, he was sprinting for bonification seconds, but the Australian was not paying attention, and Rodriguez passed him, who was also after the red jersey. After this, O'Connor decided to cycle on; Leemreize was attentive and jumped with him.
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In the peloton, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe was in a luxury position. They needed no control with the nearest pursuer, Lipowitz, in front. Other teams didn't like O'Connor's presence and decided to keep the pace high. Bahrain Victorious, in particular, did this ahead of Tiberi. To no great avail: the Australian climber and the Dutch all-rounder were even slightly ahead, and in the last forty kilometers, they had also built a nice gap on their fellow breakaway riders.
O'Connor goes for impressive solo, UAE, Movistar, and Lidl-Trek consider GC
On the second-to-last mountain, also of the third category, it appeared that the differences remained pretty much the same: O'Connor and Leemreize were simply the fittest of the group, and Sanchez and Frigo kept fighting behind them to stay close. Then, at 27 kilometers, we saw a battle at the front: O'Connor attacked and left Leemreize standing. The Decathlon AG2R leader seemed to be working on a dashing exploit. Behind, we saw discussions between UAE and Bahrain, should they give the Australian so much leeway?
Red Bull still thought it was fine and made no move to chase. The consequence? O'Connor's virtual lead in the general classification grew to four minutes! There was no movement from the peloton; they just glanced at each other. Movistar and Lidl-Trek were also nervous. How much more of the time difference could they make up? It didn't look like it. With twenty kilometers to go, with only the final third-category climb left, we saw 6.21 minutes on the clock.
Australian Vuelta blow: favorites must work on coming stages because of O'Connor's lead
The peloton began to move just after five, but O'Connor kept cranking up the pace. For the man who won a stage in this year's UAE Tour, it was a memorable solo in the Spanish heat. His grimace betrayed the reluctance of the slender rider, but the gap remained the same for a very long time. The average percentage (3.9%) proved a not very productive chase terrain for the teams that wanted it.
Five kilometers from the finish, the gap was still no smaller than 6.20, even though the Movistar men were pounding their way to the head of the still-large peloton. This allowed the leader to go unthreatened on his trilogy: O'Connor had already won a stage in the Giro (2020) and the Tour (2021). Nowhere, however, was his performance more stunning than his venture into the sixth stage of the Vuelta. In the final kilometers, O'Connor increased the gap to nearly seven minutes.
Then, it was waiting for the pack. How much did the big names lag behind O'Connor? Frigo and Leemreize both finished more than four minutes behind. Three other breakaway riders caught the Dutchman: Rodriguez and Lipowitz. Behind them, the peloton quickly followed. The verdict? 6.30 minutes. It meant a lead in classifying four minutes and fifty seconds on Roglic for O'Connor. There you go; what a turn of events in the Vuelta!
Results stage 6 Vuelta a España 2024
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