After a heroic breakaway effort on stage 6, Ben O'Connor is in a commanding position in the general classification at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana. On his first stage in the Red Jersey however, the Australian did suffer a small loss to nearest rival Primoz Roglic.
Only six seconds, thanks to the Slovenian leader of Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe summiting the day's only climb first and taking the maximum bonus seconds on offer, with O'Connor still a relatively comfortable 4:45 clear of Roglic in the general classification.
“It was good! It was a super easy day until the final, to be fair. Then, it was explosive, but I felt much better in the heat than I did earlier in the week… It was a nice day!" O'Connor reflects in his post-stage interview following stage 7.
"I wasn’t surprised Primoz Roglic went for the bonus but it wasn’t like a crazy explosive attack. I’m pretty comfortable with how I felt today and pretty happy with how it turned out," continues the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team leader's assessment, seemingly unbothered by the small time loss. "I can’t really do much against Primoz’s sprint for the bonuses but he would have to take a lot of bonuses to make up that time. We’ll see in the big mountains.”
🇪🇸 @lavuelta - Étape 7 Une première étape en tant que leader du classement général très bien maîtrisée par tout le collectif 👏 A first stage as leader of the overall ranking very well mastered by the whole team 👏 #DECATHLONAG2RLAMONDIALETEAM - © Getty
