After keeping the dream alive for more than two weeks at the Vuelta a España, Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) finally lost the red leader’s jersey to Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) on stage 19. Even if he knew that he was not favored to hold onto red, O’Connor was still disappointed after shipping 1:49 to Roglič on Friday, falling to second overall and putting him into a fight to hold on to even a podium spot.
“I just didn’t expect myself to be so bad at the end,” O’Connor said after the brutal trip up the Alto de Moncalvillo.
O’Connor’s drop from the top of the leaderboard had come to seem almost inevitable by this point in the race, but only one week ago, the bookmakers deemed him a slight favorite over Roglič to win the Vuelta. That Friday’s outcome would be a bitter pill for O’Connor to swallow, then, is understandable – but here’s hoping that the 28-year-old Australian will look back with pride on what he has done in this race.
When he stormed into the Vuelta lead from the break on stage 6, he turned the race on its head, and he proceeded to give us two weeks of drama as he tried to cling to that unexpected lead.
With Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) falling short of expectations in his attempted title defense, and with UAE Team Emirates proving only capable of battling for stage wins rather than red, it came down to O’Connor to give Roglič a run for his money in this race. He did just that, never really collapsing in the high mountains the way some might have expected. In the end, Roglič has indeed retaken the lead, but O’Connor made him and his team work for it.
Come Sunday in Madrid, O’Connor might be standing on the overall podium, a fitting reward for his efforts, but he might not. Enric Mas (Movistar) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) are breathing down his neck now. For his part, O’Connor seemed relatively disinterested in any thought of the podium battle on Friday afternoon in La Rioja.
“Right now, I’m thinking about Monday and having beers and sitting on the terrace,” he said.
Maybe O’Connor will change his mind when he wakes up on Saturday in contention for his first ever Grand Tour podium, but at this point, it’s hard to blame him for his mindset. What’s more, in his own way, he has already done something special these past few weeks in Spain.
A decade from now, will anyone really remember the battle for second and third? Can you, dear reader, remember who finished second and third at the 2019 Tour de France? Egan Bernal made history that year as Colombia’s first Tour winner, and the other big story of the race came not from runner-up Geraint Thomas or third-placed Steven Kruijswijk, but from the showman who finished fifth overall after giving French fans a chance to dream for two weeks.
Those who watched that thrilling Tour will never forget the performance that Julian Alaphilippe delivered, even if he came up short in the end.
Barring catastrophe, Roglič will make history of his own when he ties the record for career Vuelta wins on Sunday, and the other rider we will remember most vividly from this race might be on the podium with him, but he might not. Whatever happens, it shouldn’t make a difference to how fondly fans and O’Connor himself look back on what he achieved in this race.
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