Ben O’Connor has delivered a sensational solo display to roar into a commanding lead of Spain’s Grand Tour, La Vuelta a Espana, hailing a special day when he was in a world of his own.
Australia’s top-ranked road racer O’Connor enjoyed one of his occasional supersonic outings in the saddle to triumph in Thursday’s bumpy 185.5km sixth stage from Jerez de la Frontera to Yunquera.
His remarkable performance thrust the mercurial Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale ace from 23rd overnight, one minute 56 seconds behind Primoz Roglic, into the red jersey as overall leader, now an astonishing four minutes 51 seconds clear of Slovenia’s triple Vuelta champion.
“I felt a little bit in my own world today,” beamed O’Connor, looking remarkably fresh and more than a little amazed the peloton had let a rider of his obvious quality and danger off the leash.
“I kind of just went for it. It was just a day to seize an opportunity and I left it all out there. It’s pretty special. To go out there and just crush it like that, I absolutely loved every moment.”
Italy’s Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) was second on the day 4:33 behind O’Connor after almost four-and-a-half hours in the draining Andalusian heat, with Florian Lipowitz third.
It puts O’Connor suddenly – and wholly unexpectedly – in with a huge shout of joining Cadel Evans (2011 Tour de France) and Jai Hindley (2022 Giro d’Italia) as an Australian Grand Tour champion, even though it’s still dangerously early in the three-week race for predictions.
Asked about his prospects of holding on to the red jersey, O’Connor smiled: “Maybe, maybe not …
“Depends on how I go. It’s an excellent opportunity and I’m just going to savour it as much as I can.”
The 28-year-old from Subiaco, who’s in his last season with AG2R before joining Aussie team Jayco-AlUla next year, blew the race apart when, with 66km left, he took off with Gijs Leemreize from a 13-man breakaway.
He quickly opened up a near-minute lead over his pursuers, with Roglic’s red-jersey group caught on the hop and dithering over how to counter as he punched the air in disbelief while crossing the line.
Having shown plenty of good form early in the season, O’Connor, fourth in the Giro d’Italia, is always capable of enjoying a mega-day, and his pursuers may regret not doing more to stop him jetting away from Leemreize at the end of a climb with just under 28km to go and soloing to victory.
“That’s one for the ages!” declared disbelieving Australian cycling great Robbie McEwen, commentating on Eurosport as the peloton traipsed home six-and-a-half minutes down.
“There’ll be head-shaking and disbelief at how much time they’ve all given up to Ben O’Connor.”
The win completed O’Connor’s ‘grand slam’ of stage triumphs in the three Grand Tours after similar superb victories in the 2020 Giro and the 2021 Tour de France. He’s only the fifth Aussie to achieve the prestige ‘treble’.
“I was looking at the list of triple Grand Tour stage winners before this race started, so I’m proud to have my name on that list and to wear the red jersey as well,” said O’Connor.
“It’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime achievement maybe, so I’m going to enjoy every moment.”
AUSTRALIANS WHO HAVE WON STAGES AT ALL THREE CYCLING GRAND TOURS
Simon Gerrans (2008-2013) (1 Giro d’Italia, 2 Tour de France, 1 Vuelta a Espana)
Rohan Dennis (2015-2018) (1 Giro, 1 Tour, 2 Vuelta)
Caleb Ewan (2015-2021) (5 Giro, 5 Tour, 1 Vuelta)
Michael Matthews (2013-2023) (3 Giro, 4 Tour, 3 Vuelta)
Ben O’Connor (2020-2024) (1 Giro, 1 Tour, 1 Vuelta)
