Ben O’Connor got here via his first day as Vuelta a España chief with the purple jersey safely on his shoulders regardless of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe making it abundantly clear that they might cease at nothing to try to make the Australian lose his high spot general.
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 via the foothills of Sierra Nevada by far essentially the most harmful problem of the Vuelta’s first week.
But quite than watch for the weekend, Roglič and Red 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 way in which 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 combat 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, Red Bull and the remainder of his GC rivals will take each likelihood they’ll to check him.
“It’s apparent, anybody would do it, you by no means throw it away, it is all in for the purple jersey till it comes off my shoulders – possibly it will not,” O’Connor acknowledged defiantly.
“But I loved right this moment, it was a very good day trip, I feel the boys [teammates] loved it, seeing me main the race so I’m pleased with the way it all went down.”
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But if O’Connor is full-on focussed on combating for the lead, to guage by stage 7 at the least, Red Bull are clearly equally full-on focussed on regaining it. The German squad drove so laborious 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 Best Young Rider’s classification. But it seemingly did not matter as a lot as them giving O’Connor as laborious a time as they may.
“They did give it a little bit of a crack,” O’Connor stated, “I do not know if Primoz knew precisely the place the [bonus] dash was, whether or not it was proper on the high of the steep bit or – I do not know. Or possibly Primoz wished to see how I coped with the warmth as a result of I did battle on stage 4 – I had a mean day, I might say.”
“BI truly felt nice right this moment, I actually loved it. But I suppose they should try 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. Although it has some sections at 20 p.c like Pico Villuercas on stage 4, it’s a lot shorter and O’Connor commented that “Saturday is a very totally different end climb. It’s manner much less steep general, you do not have such a protracted run-in.”
“I actually don’t know if it’ll be as scorching as on Tuesday, however I’ll attempt to end on the entrance and never lose any time, easy as that.”
Globally, O’Connor stated, there was the query of how the group defended the jersey “and if right this moment was easy, tomorrow” -with a lot tougher terrain “can be a little bit extra sophisticated.”
“Breakaway institution might be the toughest factor to study and determine, however we’re all professionals, we have completed loads of races, and it is my eighth professional season so I’ve some expertise and know what can and ought to be completed.”
“For positive we’re not Jumbo or Bora who’ve had a number of chief’s jerseys however you realize what to do. It [defending a race lead] will not be at all times essentially the most sophisticated factor on the planet.”