"Ben O’ Connor appears to have gone AWOL…or at least apparently didn’t realise he still had red jersey & descended to team bus at bottom of final climb, bypassing podium. Hence, podium presentation delayed," wrote Friebe on his X before updating: "A bit more clarity: O’ Connor says he DID know he had kept jersey but thought podium presentation was 15km & not 500 metres from Covadonga summit, hence descended all the way (& then had to be driven back up). He wasn’t thrilled."
Once the post-stage ceremonies did finally begin however, the Australian race leader assessed a brutal day in the Spanish mountains. “Actually I didn’t think it was gonna be that bad today but in the end I saved the jersey so I guess it’s a nice silver lining going to the next two stages," O'Connor evaluates. "So I just gotta enjoy it to the max because I’m not sure I’ll be having it in Madrid. Aussie cycling is always producing the goods and it’s cool to see us fighting off at the front,” concluded O'Connor, referring to compatriot
Jay Vine, who finished the day leading the King of the Mountains classification, following the sad abandonment of Wout van Aert after a nasty crash on a slippery descent.
