BORA deploy perfect tactics to strike Ben O'Connor "although that wasn’t actually the plan" Primoz Roglic admits

Primoz Roglic has appeared better on the short and steep climbs at the Vuelta a España and so yesterday into Padrón it was predicted that the Slovenian would take the opportunity to attack Ben O'Connor. The Australian struggled on the climb and there has been a meaningful gain for the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe rider, even though there were several plans during the day.

“It’s always better to gain time than to lose time. I still have to make up a lot of time in the general classification, but I am happy," Roglic said in words to FloBikes. “Happy with how the race went and with my legs. I am also very satisfied with the work of my teammates. They really rode exceptionally well. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. The most important thing is that we can execute our race strategy.”

BORA had three riders in the breakaway. Two of them dropped back to help the leaders position into the final climb, which was done perfectly. Giovanni Aleotti and Aleksandr Vlasov led out Roglic perfectly into attacking the Puerto Cruxeiras. Unlike the Sierra Nevada stage, O'Connor struggled with the explosive effort here and was put into difficulties in a chasing group. Meanwhile Roglic bridged across to Daniel Martínez who provided key assistance in the final kilometers.

"Although that wasn’t actually the plan, but that’s just how it went. And in the final it worked out exceptionally well," Roglic admits. However a combination of good tactics and good legs meant the Slovenian took back 37 seconds on the red jersey. The gap is now of 3:16 minutes, but with O'Connor's frequent weak moments the Slovenian is well within striking distance of the race lead, still with plenty mountain stages remaining in the race. Today with the summit finish in Manzaneda, the GC riders will be put to the test once again and BORA may have the plan to take more time at the end of the day.