Vuelta a España leader Ben O’Connor survived a difficult stage and dangerous late attack by EF Education-EasyPost leader Richard Carapaz with his five-second overall lead intact, but the Australian admitted it had been anything but a straightforward day through the sierras of Alava.
Carapaz and EF launched a powerful surprise attack on the Alto de la Herrera category 1 climb. With nearly 40 kilometres to go, on paper, that was a long way from the finish in Maeztu, but in fact, it proved more than enough to put O’Connor in trouble.
Briefly distanced following Carapaz’ definitive attack close to the summit, after a frantic two-kilometre chase led by his Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, O’Connor managed to regain contact in the rolling descent with the EF-led GC group.
After a flat-out drive to the line, the Australian and his closest three rivals remain locked in the same times on GC as the three key final stages of this year’s Vuelta loom, with Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) trailing O’Connor by just five seconds, Enric Mas (Movistar) at 1:25 and Carapaz at 1:46.
Mikel Landa (T Rex-QuickStep), previously fifth, lost significant time on stage 18, but with four rivals so close to O’Connor, the Vuelta leader will have plenty of rivals snapping at his heels on Friday’s key ascent of the Moncalvillo.
“It was a surprise that Carapaz attacked. I didn’t expect it to be like that, but I’m glad I got through it in one piece,” O’Connor told reporters.
“Finally, we managed to benefit [by dropping Landa], but you could see how fast we were riding, and it wasn’t an easy stage at all. There are no easy days at the Vuelta this year.”
O’Connor was asked about what he thought of the Moncalvillo ascent and what he knew about it. But he said his focus was on trying to relax after what had clearly been a stressful day. As he put it, "rather than think about tomorrow, I want to try and chill out a little because today was hard.”
However, asked before stage 18 what his big goal was for the rest of the Vuelta, O'Connor indicated that if he finished in the top three on Sunday, he would be satisfied. “My main aim is to be on that podium in Madrid, whichever place that is. That’s the aim.”
Even if a top rival, Carapaz, opted to make a move on stage 18, O’Connor argued that his own room for manoeuvre and go on the attack himself was much more limited.
“It would just never work. Bora [Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe] are too strong. That’s the main one, Bora would be too strong, I think. Some other teams could probably be exposed, but not them.”
O’Connor’s prediction about other riders being vulnerable proved to be utterly accurate regarding Landa on Thursday, but the Decathlon leader denied that he would overly notice the effects of the fraught finale of stage 18 himself. Rather, with three days remaining, no matter how hard the effort, it would just melt into the general state of fatigue in the peloton, he said.
“We’ve raced every single day, and everyone is just tired,” he explained. “But somehow, I’m still managing to crack out some pretty good numbers, so I don’t think it makes any difference now." "And I’m still in the lead! It’s nice to have it for another day. I don’t know if it’s been 13 or 14 days, but a long time. I’ve enjoyed that a lot.”
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