"We can’t be at the front every day" - Cian Uijtdebroeks explains Visma's role in Ben O'Connor's Vuelta a Espana shakeup

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team's Ben O'Connor turned the general classification on its head at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana on Thursday, winning stage 6 from the breakaway and taking control of the Red Jersey as a result.

Now sitting at the top of the general classification standings by nearly five minutes from Primoz Roglic, O'Connor, who has already finished 4th overall at the Giro d'Italia earlier this year, seems to have a golden opportunity to claim a first ever Grand Tour win. The tactics of rival teams and most notably Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe in allowing a proven Grand Tour contender to gain such time have been heavily questioned though.

Team Visma | Lease a Bike are the team of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana winner Sepp Kuss. With 6 stages gone this time around though, the American is already over six minutes down on O'Connor and the Red Jersey. “It was really tough from the start,” Kuss' teammate Cian Uijtdebroeks told VTM NIEUWS afterwards, explaining the team's lack of impetus in chasing O'Connor down themselves. “At one point, thirty riders got away. When Carapaz and Arensman went, I tried to ride towards them. But that was too much to ask, I don’t have that explosiveness. The leading group did take a big lead. And we’ve already wasted a lot of energy in the past few days. We can’t be at the front every day. It’s a shame that they got so far ahead. And that we didn’t get much support from other teams.”

"His lead is big. And he is therefore a threat to the final victory," Uijtdebroeks admits honestly in conclusion. "The Vuelta is of course still long. And we should not underestimate Florian Lipowitz (also in the breakaway and now fourth in the standings, ed.) either."