He's Still There Despite repeated predictions that Ben O'Connor would lose the lead on the dreaded and steep Quitu Negru climb of the Vuelta a España, the Australian fought tooth and nail to hang on to red for the 10th consecutive stage. And at the top of the monstrous 18km climb, he held on to his class lead by the narrowest of margins.

O'Connor was able to ride with the other favourites on the tough but manageable lower slopes of the Kuitu Negru, but as soon as the GC group entered the ultra-steep final section, his archrival Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) pulled his teammate O'Connor finally fell off the bike as the GC group broke away with teammate Florian Lipowitz in tow.

With the fog swirling, it was virtually impossible to see exactly how O'Connor was doing on the final critical climb, but at the summit he was 39 seconds ahead of Roglic. Roglic himself was not in great form, and in a similar scenario to Hazaranas a week earlier, the Slovenian was briefly dropped by Enric Mas (Movistar), but they touched again near the finish.

As a result of O'Connor's tenacity, combined with the 20-second penalty that Roglic subsequently received, he remains in first place in the Vuelta a España GC standings by 1:03. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] It all depends on who bites first.”

With the Vuelta entering its third week and Roglic closing in at just over a minute, GC is on a knife-edge. But it's the little things that can throw a race out of whack.” [Although Cadel Evans won the Tour de France and Jai Hindley won the Giro d'Italia, no Australian before O'Connor had held the lead in a Grand Tour for so many days in a row.

“So now I'll just enjoy the (second) day of rest.

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