Ben O’Connor got here by way of his first day as Vuelta a España chief with the pink jersey safely on his shoulders regardless of Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe making it abundantly clear that they’d cease at nothing to attempt to make the Australian lose his prime spot total.
Most race observers anticipated that Primož Roglič would reserve his troops for the 2 upcoming battles within the mountains of southern Spain, with stage 9 by way of the foothills of Sierra Nevada by far probably the most harmful problem of the Vuelta’s first week.
However relatively than look forward to the weekend, Roglič and Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe set down a searing tempo on the one categorized climb of stage 7, the lengthy however not exceptionally troublesome class 2 ascent of Alto del 14%.
O’Connor was in a position to deal with the tempo, although, all the best way to the summit and on the technical descent again to Cordoba within the entrance group of some 20 riders in an impressively preliminary tenacious defence of the jersey he has simply captured.
The terrain was hardly related. The Australian defined afterwards, he is completely decided to battle tooth and nail for the primary Grand Tour lead of his profession, and really conscious, too, that from seemingly inoffensive class 2 climbs to a lot tougher mountain phases, Purple Bull and the remainder of his GC rivals will take each likelihood they’ll to check him.
“It is apparent, anybody would do it, you by no means throw it away, it is all in for the pink jersey till it comes off my shoulders – perhaps it will not,” O’Connor said defiantly.
“However I loved at present, it was a very good day trip, I feel the boys [teammates] loved it, seeing me main the race so I am happy with the way it all went down.”
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But when O’Connor is full-on focussed on preventing for the lead, to evaluate by stage 7 a minimum of, Purple Bull are clearly equally full-on focussed on regaining it. The German squad drove so arduous on the Alto del 14% that their plan ‘B’ for the GC, Florian Lipowitz, cracked close to the summit and fell again, dropping the lead within the Finest Younger Rider’s classification. However it seemingly did not matter as a lot as them giving O’Connor as arduous a time as they might.
“They did give it a little bit of a crack,” O’Connor mentioned, “I do not know if Primoz knew precisely the place the [bonus] dash was, whether or not it was proper on the prime of the steep bit or – I do not know. Or perhaps Primoz needed to see how I coped with the warmth as a result of I did wrestle on stage 4 – I had a median day, I’d say.”
“BI truly felt nice at present, I actually loved it. However I assume they need to attempt to it isn’t going to be the final time we see them working like that to see if they’ll drop me.”
The subsequent step for O’Connor in his Vuelta a España defence will include a troublesome summit end at Cazorla on stage 8. Though it has some sections at 20 % like Pico Villuercas on stage 4, it’s a lot shorter and O’Connor commented that “Saturday is a very completely different end climb. It is approach much less steep total, you do not have such a protracted run-in.”
“I actually don’t know if it may be as sizzling as on Tuesday, however I am going to attempt to end on the entrance and never lose any time, easy as that.”
Globally, O’Connor mentioned, there was the query of how the workforce defended the jersey “and if at present was easy, tomorrow” -with a lot tougher terrain “will probably be a little bit extra sophisticated.”
“Breakaway institution might be the toughest factor to study and determine, however we’re all professionals, we have finished loads of races, and it is my eighth professional season so I’ve some expertise and know what can and needs to be finished.”
“For certain we’re not Jumbo or Bora who’ve had a number of chief’s jerseys however what to do. It [defending a race lead] is just not all the time probably the most sophisticated factor on the planet.”
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