Stunning ride from Ben O’Connor gives him Vuelta stage, overall lead and chance of overall win

MADRID, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) — Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) produced a brilliant solo ride to win the sixth stage and take a potentially decisive overall lead of the Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain) cycle race on Thursday.
The Australian, who has previously won stages in the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, was the last survivor of a mass breakaway on the 185.5-kilometer stage between Jerez de la Frontera and Yunquera, which gave riders no respite with a first category and three third category climbs, separated by rolling terrain in temperatures again close to 40 degrees centigrade.
O’Connor began the day a minute and 53 seconds behind Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in the overall standings and finished and incredible six minutes and 31 seconds ahead of the peloton containing Roglic and other riders, such as Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike).
The Australian goes into the overall lead with an advantage of four minutes and 51 minutes over Roglic, which means he has given himself a fantastic chance of keeping his lead all the way to Madrid.
The race began inside a supermarket from race sponsors Carrefour and quickly saw over 30 riders form a breakaway over hilly terrain, with immediately rules the specialized sprinters’ teams out of any chase.
A combination of heat and unforgiving terrain saw the breakaway continue to fracture until only O’Connor and Gijs Leemreiz (Team DSM-firmenich-Postnl) were left, with O’Connor going for glory on the third category Puerto Martinez, which was the penultimate climb of the day.
The heat and five days hard racing had clearly taken their toll on the main peloton with first UAE-Team Emirates, Red Bull-Bora and then Movistar leading the chase, but it was clear there were tired legs and a lack of collaboration between teams.
Meanwhile, O’Connor continued to extend his lead, as he piled on the gas to the finish, while the peloton failed to react.
Stage 7 on Friday is another stage over rolling terrain with 180 kilometers ending in Cordoba, but with a second category climb that will bite into legs 40 kilometers from the finish. ■