O'Connor under even more pressure: Carapaz wants more than Vuelta podium and calls surprising attack "first move"

The eighteenth stage in the Vuelta a España didn't particularly lend itself to it, but at EF Education-EasyPost, the team knew we couldn't keep waiting. Richard Carapaz used the steep Puerto de Herrera to attack, even though it was still more than forty kilometers to the finish from the top. The violence produced one unexpected victim, but mostly a lot of confidence to reap in the coming days.

Carapaz let his team go full blast on the day's final climb and went off by himself. That was at the expense of Mikel Landa. He had a bad day and lost more than three minutes to his competitors. Because Landa dropped to number five in the GC, the gap from Carapaz to the new number five (David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ) suddenly exceeds two minutes. And so eyes can turn to the three places ahead of him.

Ben O'Connor is still in the red, but the Australian of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale had to pass again when there was an attack. However, Carapaz is still 1.48 minutes behind O'Connor, and as the GC leader mended things with his team, they must perform in the final two mountain stages on Friday and Saturday. "This is only the first move," Carapaz said, full of bravado at Eurosport.

Read more below the video

O'Connor calls attack Carapaz "a surprise"

So what's next? First of all, on Friday, the finish atop Alto de Moncalvillo and, on Saturday, another challenging climb to Picón Blanco. "The last categorized climb was tough, so the team did a good job," Carapaz looked back with satisfaction. "We are improving every day, and there is still a lot of Vuelta to go. The wet weather conditions are taking their toll on everyone, but I am confident going into my third week. We want to compete for the overall win, so this was the first move."

O'Connor wore the red jersey for the thirteenth (!) day in a row on Thursday. His five-second lead over Primoz Roglic remained intact, even though he had to make another recovery. "I didn't expect Carapaz's attack. We had to close a gap, and we succeeded. It was a tough ride, but I had to stay calm. In the end, it was a good day."