The snapshot provided by the final climb can sometimes offer a misleading overview of the day's racing. However, there was nothing deceptive about the picture painted by the Alto de Mougás on stage 10 of the Vuelta a España. In so far as possible in a race of this intensity, Ben O'Connor enjoyed a relatively comfortable day in the red jersey of race leader.
It helped, of course, that the Vuelta's long transfer north to Galicia brought with it a hefty drop in temperature. After the mercury had climbed above 40°C amid the parched terrain of Andalusia last week, the air was mercifully cooler as the peloton navigated the verdant peaks of the Rías Baixas on Tuesday – even if, like O'Connor's apparent ease on the final climb, it's all relative.
