Australian rider Ben O'Connor, who had been fighting tenaciously to hold onto the lead of the Vuelta a España, was dropped in the Alto de Moncalvillo.

O'Connor's fall from the Vuelta lead had been expected for some time, and some television commentators had already dismissed his domination of the reds as they passed through the Sierra Nevada on stage 9.

But the Australian never threw in the towel, and even on Tuesday's ultra-difficult climb to Lagos de Covadonga, he was still ahead of Primos Roglic, albeit by only five seconds.

[10] [11] [12] Supported by Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammates Alexandre Vlasov and Dani Martinez, Roglic broke away with 5km to go on stage 19, the Alto de Moncalvillo, and the race was over when the race was over.

After Vlasov and Martinez worked to keep Roglic solo to the finish, O'Connor went into maximum damage limitation mode. But when Enric Mas (Movistar) popped up alone, he reached the limit of even staying in a group that included Richard Kalapas (EF Education - Easy Post).

Shaking his head from side to side at the summit, O'Connor was nearly 2 minutes ahead of Roglic, the largest time gap since he took the red jersey on stage 6. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]