Australia's Jack Haig is currently committed to working for his Bahrain-Victorias teammate and GC contender Antonio Tiberi at the Vuelta a España. But that didn't stop the 30-year-old from appreciating his country's latest success story in the Spanish Grand Tour, as his compatriot Ben O'Connor took the red jersey in dramatic style on stage 6.

Given that O'Connor is nearly five minutes ahead of his closest rival, Primoz Roglic, on GC, the Australian-born Hague, who finished third on the podium in 2021, is high on the possibility of O'Connor wearing La Roja to Madrid. Or, at the very least, O'Connor could follow his career and eventually finish in the top three, Haig says.

Haig also still has GC goals. But as he told Cycling News at the start of stage 7, the top priority for the Australian at the Vuelta is to surpass him in the overall standings and work for teammate Antonio Tiberi, who currently leads the young rider class.

“Everything is going well. I had some time at home after the Tour de France. Riding through San Sebastián and then coming here, it all happened so fast,” Hague said. [I'm enjoying racing in Spain. The Vuelta has always been good to me. Antonio Tiberi seems to be in good shape. I want to go for the white jersey with him and hopefully get a good position in GC.”

Tiberi is currently in sixth place overall with 5:29, but the talk of the Vuelta a España right now is race leader O'Connor.

“He's a really good rider, he finished fourth in the Tour, and he may be having the best season of his career. He just became a father, so that might have an impact,” Hague explained when asked how he sees O'Connor as a racer.

“He finished fourth in the Giro d'Italia this year and has many other good results. It could be quite difficult to pull him away from the red jersey, especially from the podium."

He added: ”He's a very good racer.

As Haig explained, O'Connor's long-distance attack and ability to gain six minutes from the pack surprised many. But what allowed the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale racer to do more damage on stage 6 was his lack of reaction after he cleared.

“I think a lot of riders in the peloton were surprised by the size of the gap at the finish because they weren't taking it easy in the pack,” Hague said.

“But no one made any effort to close that gap, some teams came through at certain moments, but they didn't make a big effort.

“So when we crossed the finish line and saw that the gap was six minutes, everybody was quite surprised. So when we crossed the finish line and saw the difference was six minutes, everybody was pretty surprised.

As for the option of aiming for a higher finish in the Vuelta GC, as he did in 2021, Haig has not ruled out that possibility. But, as he puts it, “the goals in the background, if realized, will be realized.”

“The main goal is to help Antonio,” says Haig, who is currently in 16th place with a time of 6:11. 'He's had a really good Giro and is a big talent. The team has signed him to a long-term contract and wants to develop him as much as possible. I'm happy to be working for him."

He is also a member of the team.

Aside from the Bahrain Victorious option, the million-dollar question for Vuelta is how far O'Connor can go in the race lead.

“Ben has a good chance to win the Vuelta. As I've said before, he's not a rider who hasn't had results in the past, and he's not a rider who hasn't proven he can run three weeks pretty strongly.”

“So I think he has a strong chance to take the jersey [overall] and especially now to be on the last podium.

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