Who would have thought it? Just two days after it seemed that Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) had moved into pole position to secure yet another Vuelta a España overall victory, the GC battle has abruptly yawned wide open, and the triple Vuelta winner will likely have a fight on his hands of major proportions in his bid to take a fourth.
The Vuelta is always good at producing unexpected developments - how many people would honestly have had Sepp Kuss as the overall winner before 2023, for example? But the events of stage 6 of the 2024 race were unexpected in anyone's book. A gutsy, long-distance break by Ben O’Connor - previously two minutes down on GC and trying for a stage win at least initially - has now put the Australian into the overall lead as well. And by a considerable, potentially race-winning, margin to boot.
