✨ An EXHIBITION of strength that will be remembered! Relive the LAST KM where 🇦🇺 @ben_oconnor95 was able to celebrate his victory and race lead. 🤩 ¡Una EXHIBICIÓN que será recordada! Revive el ÚLTIMO KM gracias a @carrefourES. #LaVuelta24
Ben O'Connor completes Grand Tour trilogy and takes over Vuelta a Espana with 5 minutes over Primoz Roglic: "I felt a little bit in my own world today"
CyclingFriday, 23 August 2024 at 11:02
Ben O'Connor has had some pretty good days throughout his career but without a single doubt, today's victory at the Vuelta a España will come down as one of his best-ever performances. The Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider took full advantage of his presence on the breakaway to take the stage win, a strong and big race lead, and to take complete the set of Grand Tour stage wins.
"I felt a little bit in my own world today. When the group of 30 went I was a bit disappointed because I thought it was a pretty good opportunity. When the race opened up again I kinda just went for it," the Australian said in a post-race interview. He was very keen on being in the head of the race, and attacked several times until this happened.
"I felt today was a day where I saw an opportunity and I just layed it all out there. i felt like I could win the stage from the start. it's pretty special when you you can go out and crush it like that I love every moment". O'Connor was a threat to the GC, but BORA did not react to it as they looked to provide Florian Lipowitz with an opportunity to get back in the serious GC fight and be a weapon against the likes of UAE Team Emirates.
However, O'Connor blew everyone's plans out the gate. A set of attacks with over 60 kilometers to go saw him and Gijs Leemreize drop the rest of the breakaway, and then he dropped his group companion for a solo victory of over 25 kilometers in distance. He gained 6:32 (plus bonifications) to the peloton, climbing from 23rd to first place.
"Today was noticeably less hot. Still hot but not 42 degrees. I enjoyed today a lot, it was beautiful racing all round. I was looking at the triple Grand Tour winners before the race started, I'm proud to have my name on that list, and now the red jersey as well it was a once in a lifetime," he says.
He has a whole 4:51 minutes on Primoz Roglic now, in second place, and we are talking about the rider who finished fourth at the Giro d'Italia and has strong support here including Felix Gall and Valentin Paret-Peintre. He becomes a strong contender for the overall victory in the race even.
"Maybe, maybe not," he jokes. "It depends on how it goes in Cazorla, Granada... But it's an excellent opportunity and I'm just gonna savor it as much as I can," he says of this new race situation. "Maybe it's a deja vu of the [2021] Tour de France but without a crash to start, so it's cool".
Read also
claps 6visitors 6
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- No, it didn't. It has been debunked by the team that there was anything wrong with his feeding. Pogacar went too early and paid the price.maaiikeen31-12-2024
- Strong team around Jonas and pray each day that Tadej forgets to eat in the decisive stages (col du Granon). It also happened this year, stage 11 when Jonas won the sprint (incredible! Tadej was empty).
maria2024202430-12-2024 - Not quite yet I’d say but she could reach and surpass. You probably forgot Vos’ 2 track WC titles that outweigh the total and it has to be said more of PFPs MTB titles are a bit far fetched than Vos but yes they are comparable. It’s strange that with her consistent participation in xc she’s never ever managed to win even one race, Marie Schreiber can at least retire with that achievement ;-)Mistermaumau30-12-2024
- He may be known as “The goat” but I can’t realistically consider him a top ten candidate taking together all forms of cycling. Vos had 28 UCI WC wins, Absalon 33, Schurter 34, MVDP 41 and counting. As far as world championships they are all ahead too Longo, MVDP, PFP, Merckx, de Vlaeminck, TP and at least a half dozen others from long ago are surely higher up, or what criteria are you privileging other than a nickname?Mistermaumau30-12-2024
- and yeah, i’m a ridiculous blowhard for writing THAT MUCH. seriously, f me…OCexile30-12-2024
- this has diverged from being a per se cycling discussion, but that’s cool with me. so i live in the united states. for background, i grew up in southern california, educated at UC Irvine and UC Berkeley, and except for chunks of a 22 year Navy career i’ve lived here most of my life. there are things about this country, the way its social, political, and economic institutions function that IN MY OPINION fail considerably in comparison to other developed democracies. BUT, one thing that i think the US does excel in is that we have an extraordinarily high level of freedom of speech. now, that certainly opens the door for the alex joneses of the world to weaponize/monetize speech in utterly disgusting ways that do actual damage. it also gives freedom to politicians to say that the press is corrupt and should be jailed, like in russia, iran, or venezuela. these are DANGEROUS uses of freedom of speech. but as much as that freedom may imperil the well being of individuals and ideas — like the idea of liberty itself — it’s that freedom that has, over time, marked the SLOW movement toward greater equality and well being. this extreme level of free speech is certainly the primary fundamental right in the united states that has functioned, over time, to actively drive social progress. i mean, quack quack quack, right? the kind of speech that MOST needs protection is UNPOPULAR SPEECH. we KNOW this. but if you can only engage in unpopular speech IN PRIVATE, as you suggested, and be BARRED from a public platform to share those unpopular ideas, then your freedom to speak means very little and the whole project of social change and social progress grinds to a halt. “YES, you can talk about all races being equal to your friends, but you can’t publish any articles making that argument.” “YES, you can say that homosexuality isn’t a dangerous perversion that must be legislated against so long as you ONLY say it to your friends, but you can’t say it on a radio show.” so the problem is, if there’s going to be prior restraint of speech, the only person I’M gonna trust to decide who can say what before they say it is ME. if somebody wants to let me and my friends make all those decisions, then i’m IN. i’d expect a little pushback on that idea though. alex jones would probably like that job, too. lance would love that kind of power i bet. sooooo…. maybe it’s better to just leave things like they are. it’s ugly and messy and people get hurt, but once you SURRENDER that nearly unlimited freedom you’ll never get it back. and yes, society has drawn lines: still can’t threaten to blow up a mosque or share child pornography, etc. — that’s a pretty good idea. but erring on the side of freedom rather than censorship has been critical in preserving valuable free speech rather than seeing it slowly winnowed and legislated away. so yeah, there WILL be another alex jones, neonazis get to deny the holocaust, and lance gets to talk about cycling all he wants. and if you don’t like the source or the content then YOU are free to rail against it, or just not listen. as always, totally appreciate and respect YOUR perspective, brother. and i do get where you’re coming from. there are individuals in the US who have (or are about to have) the biggest platform there is who say things that drive me mad because i find them so dangerous and misleading, but the american version of democracy, with all its notable failings, has survived by preserving freedom of speech in the face of these types, not by limiting it.OCexile30-12-2024
- There is a cyclist, recently retired who raced as a Junior in 1997, and is known as 'The Goat'. Downhill legend, Greg Minnaar......wipperman9530-12-2024
- The road bias of this site shows up as PFP isn't mentioned - who is as successful as Vos, and from memory has more World titles.wipperman9530-12-2024
- his wife was surprisingly accurateabstractengineer30-12-2024
- Its the wrong thing to do the Vuelta after getting exhausted in the TDF. This is going to reduce his career potentialabstractengineer30-12-2024