Despite Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe making it clear that they would leave no stone unturned to let the Australian take the overall lead, Ben O'Connor made it through his first day as Vuelta a España leader safely carrying the red jersey.

Most race observers expected Primoš Roglic to save his forces for the two battles in the mountains of southern Spain.

But rather than wait for the weekend, Roglic and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe set a blistering pace on one of the longer but not particularly difficult climbs of stage 7, the category 2 Alto del 14%.

O'Connor, however, impressed with his tenacious defense of his freshly won jersey by staying in the lead group of about 20 riders all the way to the summit and on the technical descent back to Cordoba.

The terrain mattered little. And from the seemingly innocuous Category 2 climbs to the harder mountain stages, Red Bull and his other GC rivals were keenly aware that they would take every opportunity to test him.

“It's natural, everyone does it, they never throw it away, until the red jersey comes off my shoulders--which it probably won't. [But] I had fun today, it was a good day. I think everyone [my teammates] enjoyed seeing me lead the race.

But if O'Connor is committed to fighting for the lead, it is clear that Red Bull is equally committed to regaining it, at least as far as stage 7 is concerned. The German team made a strong push on the Alto del 14%, but GC's Plan B, Florian Lipowitz, cracked near the summit and fell back. But it didn't seem to matter as much as they gave O'Connor as tough a time as possible.

“O'Connor said, 'Where is the bonus sprint, the steep summit or ...... I don't know. Or maybe Primosch wanted to see how I would cope with the heat because I struggled on stage 4.'

“BI looked really good today. But it won't be the last time I see them do a job where they try to see if they can drop me.”

O'Connor's next step in the defense of the Vuelta a España is a tough summit finish in Cazorla on stage 8. There are some 20 percent sections, like Pico Vilhuelcas on stage 4, but they are much shorter, and O'Connor said, “Saturday is a completely different finish climb. Overall, it's less steep and there are no long run-ins."

”The finish is a lot steeper and there's no long run-ins.

“I don't know if it will be as hot as Tuesday, but I'll try to finish at the front and not lose time.

Globally, O'Connor said the question is how the team will protect the jersey.

“Establishing breakaways is probably the hardest thing to learn and understand.

“Certainly we're not Jumbo and Bora with multiple leader jerseys, but we know what to do. (Defending the lead) isn't necessarily the most complicated thing in the world.

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