Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) powered to victory on stage 6 of the Vuelta a España and moved into the lead of the overall standings, also inking his name into the short list of riders to win stages of all three Grand Tours.
"I'm proud to put my name there on that, on that list, and I guess I have the red jersey as well – so it's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience," O'Connor said.
O'Connor made a stunning attack on the 185.5km stage to Yunquera to claim the win ahead of solo chaser Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech). Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) sprinted in for third.
After a wickedly fast first hour, O'Connor made it into the day's large breakaway and, as Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was keen to relinquish the responsibility as race leader, the move was given a maximum lead of 6:30 deep into the stage.
The Australian was more than happy to expend the effort to fight for the stage win and turn around what was a nearly two-minute deficit to Roglič into a commanding lead in the race. He attacked after the group had been reduced to just 13 riders and got away with Gijs Leemreize (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL).
"I felt a little bit my own world today. When the group of 30 went I was a bit disappointed because I thought it was a pretty good opportunity," O'Connor said.
"When the race opened up again, I kind of just went for it. I felt today it was just a day to seize my opportunity, and I just laid it all out there, and I felt like I could win this stage from the start. It's pretty special when you can just go out and crush it like that. I absolutely loved every moment."
He left his last breakaway companion behind on the penultimate climb of the Puerto Martinez with 26km to go and continued to power away, putting even more time into the Roglič group.
Roglič came across the line in the chasing peloton 6:31 behind O'Connor.
With the time bonus for the stage win and the time bonus for winning the intermediate sprint, O'Connor now leads the Vuelta a España by 4:51 over Roglič, with João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) in third at 4:59.
How it Unfolded
The Vuelta a España had a surreal start to stage 6 with riders lining up along the checkout aisle of the Carrefour Jerez to promote the hypermarket's longstanding sponsorship of the race.
The riders must have fuelled up before the start because the first hour of the race was clicked off at a vicious pace of 48.7kph, with attack after attack before a breakaway went clear.
At one point, the peloton split in two with João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) the most notable rider on the wrong end of the gap. However, the race came back together ahead of the first climb, the Puerto del Boyar - a climb 14.7km long averaging 5.5%, with a max gradient of 10%.
Eventually, a group of 33 riders split off the front of the peloton and at the start of the category 1 climb, they had a lead of 1:44 on the peloton but more riders were still accelerating to try to join the escape.
Another group tried to make it across, but only Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) would make the day's move by the top, while green jersey holder Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked repeatedly to bridge across but never made it.
Pelayo Sánchez (Movistar Team) led the breakaway over the summit ahead of Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) and Cristian Rodríguez (Arkéa-B&B Hotels). However, the escape began to shed riders and was down to just 13 men before the intermediate sprint with 66km to go.
Still in the group were Fran Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Vine, Mauri Vansevenant (T Rex-Quickstep), O'Connor and Clément Berthet (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Luca Vergallito (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), Sanchez, Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Rodríguez, Gijs Leemreize (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), Urko Berrade and Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma).
Lipowitz was the highest-placed of the breakaway in the GC standings at 1:50 from his teammate Roglič, with O'Connor next at 1:56 and Rodríguez at 1:58.
Lipowitz moved into the virtual lead and at the intermediate sprint, the escape had a lead of over five minutes as Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe were happy to leave the work controlling the escape to Bahrain Victorious.
At the intermediate sprint, O'Connor launched an attack, followed by Rodríguez, to get the time bonus on the line. Lipowitz didn't bother to fight, as Red Bull appeared to want to give the red jersey away.
O'Connor and Rodríguez were caught but soon after, as riders collected their snacks in the feed zone, O'Connor clipped off again with Leemreize and opened up a strong advantage over the remaining breakaway riders.
Frigo and Berrade tried to get across on the category 3 Puerto del Viento and, over the top, Sanchez attacked and bridged across to them. The trio tried to close the gap to O'Connor and Leemreize on the long, undulating descent but couldn't catch them.
Meanwhile, the peloton lagged 5:40 behind, with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe refusing to set the pace, giving O'Connor a generous lead in the virtual overall standings. Finally, UAE Team Emirates came through to reduce the gap.
On the Puerto Martinez, O'Connor left Leemreize behind and any chance of a cohesive chase behind evaporated on the sun-baked slopes as the chasing groups exploded behind.
O'Connor had almost a minute on Leemreize and over six on the peloton on the descent. Frigo, trying to chase down the DSM rider, slid out in a corner and crashed with 19km to go, but was quickly up, albeit passed by the Lipowitz group.
The Australian continued to open up the gap on his chasers as he soloed to the stage win.
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