Vuelta a España leader Ben O'Connor did his best to put a positive spin on his latest time loss to GC rival Primož Roglič on Wednesday, but even the usually upbeat Australian could not hide his disappointment at losing 37 seconds to the Slovenian and other rivals.
From the foot of the short but relentlessly steep category 3 Puerto Cruxeiras last in the stage, Roglič's renewed determination to punch a hole of some kind in O'Connor's GC lead was crystal clear, as he put his teammates to raise the pace before roaring clear.
Just as at Cazorla's brutally tough final ascent on Saturday Enric Mas (Movistar) was, once again, the only rider able to shadow the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe racer. But if other GC contenders like Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Mikel Landa (T Rex-QuickStep) were able to bridge across later on, by then O'Connor was too far adrift and in damage limitation mode.
While Roglič was considerably aided by teammate Dani Martinez after the Colombian dropped back from the break of the day, the Australian rider also received the late support of some teammates like Clément Berthet and Felix Gall. O'Connor kept the pace high in person in the closing metres, but even so, he still finished the day with Roglič 37 seconds closer than he would have liked in the Vuelta a España GC standings.
"Yes, I expected him to do something like that attack," a serious-looking O'Connor told reporters later, before adding with a rueful smile, "I also expected myself to be able to hold the wheel, but you can't do everything."
"I didn't want to lose time on any day, so any day I lose time isn't the best."
Speaking later he added, "It was hard, a bit too hard, and I just wasn't good enough to hold on over the top. So I'm a bit disappointed but that's stage - what, 11, 12? - and I'm still in the red jersey."
Isolated, too, on the climb from his teammates before they returned to his side on the final part of the run-in, O'Connor pointed out that "They were really good at Sierra Nevada and yesterday [stage 10], but it's hard to expect them to be ahead of me every single day. Because in the end, I'm the one in the red jersey so I'm the one that should be following the guys and the one there on the front."
The time gain for Roglič, Mas, and the rest was not the biggest in the higher levels of GC by a long shot, as New Zealander George Bennett (Israel-Premier Tech), present in the early break, regained a fraction over four minutes on the Australian and moved up six spots into tenth overall.
But while O'Connor said he was not overly concerned by Bennett's considerably improved GC status, his real focus remains the group of favourites who have once again closed in on him. His greatest gap on Roglič was 4:51 after stage 6, but it's now shrunk to 3:16 and four mountain stages in quick succession begin on Thursday, with a cat.1 summit finish at the Manzaneda.
"Friday and Sunday's stages are much more important, though," O'Connor warned. "I'm guessing we'll have yet another ridiculous fight for the breakaway tomorrow [Thursday], but my focus is really on Friday and Sunday."
Yet despite the time loss and his disappointment, O'Connor tried to see the bright side of the situation.
"I'm just annoyed with myself to be fair," he said, "but I've still got a decent lead and whatever, the strongest guy is going to win this race, and if it's me or not - so be it."
