The red jersey of the Vuelta a España was lost in the fog of Lagos de Covadonga. Ben O'Connor had ridden well enough to hang on to first place overall on stage 16, but when communications were lost at the finish, the race organization frantically tried to locate O'Connor for the podium ceremony.

O'Connor's fatigue was evident at the summit, where he was 4:52 ahead of stage winner Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), but just under a minute ahead of Primoš Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). This meant he would retain the red jersey by 5 seconds, but it was not immediately clear from O'Connor's body language whether he was aware of that fact.

Then again, chasing shadows through rain and fog on the most iconic summit of the Vuelta tends to give everyone, winners and losers alike, a ghostly look. It takes time for sounds to become words, and it still takes time for words to be recognized as concrete information.

O'Connor asked Soignier to put on his raincoat, then turned around and headed back down the mountain. The podium was located about 1 km from the finish line, but O'Connor apparently had not been informed of this fact. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 0]

Still, O'Connor ran well enough to extend his grip on the red jersey, and complimented the efforts of the first GC men's Valentin Pare-Pantre on the long road to Lagos de Covadonga, where Mikel Landa went on the attack with 9km to go.

“I was pretty worn out at the finish,” O'Connor said. 'Valentin was really, really strong. Everyone on the team is very proud of him. It's been a great experience for all of us to have worn the red jersey for 11 days already.”

O'Connor's presence could well be needed at the awards ceremony in Santander on Wednesday afternoon.

“I got the red jersey for tomorrow,” he said. 'I'll probably wear the jersey tomorrow, maybe even the day after tomorrow. I'll be surprised on Friday. But as it turns out, I've had a pretty good period of time in the red jersey. It's been 11 days so far, so hopefully I can wear the red jersey for a couple more days. [...] [...]] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]