Thursday, August 22, 2024 at 5:30 PM
Ben O’Connor has scored a double in the sixth stage of the Vuelta a España. The Australian, who had lost time to many of the other favourites in the first mountain stage, joined the early breakaway, rode away early with Gijs Leemreize and then started a solo.
The sixth stage of the Vuelta a España started in Jerez de la Frontera. The riders left at 12:40 from… a supermarket. After a flat opening phase of about fifty kilometers, the Puerto del Bojar (15 km at 5.7%) was the first obstacle of the day. Then came four more climbs of the third category. First there was the Alto de Ronda (5.9 km at 4.6%), the Puerto del Viento (6.9 km at 4.1%) and the easier Puerto Martinez (3.8 km at 5.5%). Then the finish was on the Alto de las Abejas (9.3 km at 4%).
Start at Carrefour – photo: Cor Vos
In the run-up to the Puerto del Bojar, many riders tried to get away. It took a while, but eventually a large leading group of no less than 33 riders emerged. Among them were the Belgians Mauri Vansevenant, Louis Vervaeke, Xandro Meurisse and Victor Campenaerts. For the Netherlands, Gijs Leemreize was with them. On the flanks of the Puerto del Bojar, a few riders tried to cross, including Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Thymen Arensman (INEOS Grenadiers).
Strong leading group
This counterattack eventually brought everything back together. Well, almost everything. Three riders from the original breakaway – Clément Berthet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar) and Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea-B&B Hotels) – stayed ahead. They would later be joined by ten other riders, some of whom we had already seen go into battle earlier.
It was a tough race in the opening phase – photo: Cor Vos
It involved Leemreize (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Vansevenant (T-Rex Quick-Step), Pablo Castrillo, Urko Berrade (both Equipo Kern Pharma), Jay Vine (UAE Emirates), Chris Harper (Jayco AlUla), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), Luca Vergallito (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale). Lipowitz was the best-ranked rider at the front. He was one minute and fifty seconds behind the red jersey wearer, his teammate Primoz Roglic. O’Connor followed six seconds further.
Leemreize and O’Connor join forces
Despite Lipowitz’s presence at the front, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe initially controlled the peloton. At some point, however, they stopped riding. Bahrain Victorious then took over, so that the lead of the escapees did not increase much more than five minutes. Moreover, the difference had already been reduced somewhat when O’Connor and Leemreize took the hare’s path with sixty kilometers to go. The duo soon rode a minute away from the chasing group.
From that group, three escaped: Berrade, Frigo and Sánchez. They came within half a minute of Leemreize and O’Connor, but then they fell back a bit. The peloton, where Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe received help alternately from UAE Emirates and Movistar, was now more than five minutes behind the leaders. O’Connor therefore had a chance of the red jersey and therefore kept pushing hard. Leemreize mainly limited himself to following.
O’Connor goes solo
That was not a luxury, as was evident on the Puerto Martinez (3.8 km at 5.5%). On this climb, the Dutchman could no longer keep O’Connor’s wheel. The Australian therefore started a solo with 28 kilometers to go. After that, he only increased his lead. On the first pursuers and on the peloton. When he crossed the line as the convincing winner, he had almost seven minutes ahead of the group with leader Primoz Roglic. At the line, the difference would be more than six and a half minutes.
After O’Connor’s arrival, it was a long wait for the number two of the stage: Marco Frigo. The Italian had passed Gijs Leemreize in the final, who seemed to be on his way to third place. In the very last meters, however, the Dutchman was sprinted past by a group with Lipowitz, Berthet and Rodriguez – in that order. The completely exhausted Leemreize thus finished sixth.
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