After the opening days of this year's Vuelta a España, few would have bet against Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe), a three-time winner of the race, winning stage four and claiming the red jersey.
However, a week on, and things seem far from certain. A decision to gift the race lead to someone else on stage six, in the hope that it would be simple to claim it back, backfired for Roglič and his team. Rather than a non-GC rider claiming red, it was taken by Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), a rider who has finished fourth at both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in the past. Alarm bells rang.
The Australian, in his last year with Decathlon before moving to Jayco-AlUla, isn't just slightly in the lead either. O'Connor has 3:53 on Roglič, and 4:32 on Richard Carapaz in third. That is a lot of time to claim back in the final 12 stages.
"I don't really feel that much pressure in the red jersey, to be honest," O'Connor said on Monday.
This story is from the August 29, 2024 edition of Cycling Weekly.
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This story is from the August 29, 2024 edition of Cycling Weekly.
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