Successful the toughest stage of the Tour de France will certainly stay a serious spotlight of Ben O’Connor’s profession lengthy after he has retired. However globally, accidents and crashes and subsequent GC setbacks meant that total the Australian couldn’t get pleasure from or do the racing the best way he needed – and on the Vuelta a España the Jayco-AlUla chief is feeling much more upbeat all spherical.
Because the runner-up total within the 2024 Vuelta sees it, in comparison with the 2025 Tour, within the Spanish equal occasion, he is capable of do what he calls “some simple racing.”
To date, O’Connor has quietly saved himself within the GC battle with none standout moments, however with none disasters, both. After shedding somewhat time in Andorra however then staying with the principle group on the second Pyrenean summit end of Cerler, he is presently mendacity seventeenth at 3:53 on chief Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious).
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“Yesterday [Friday] was good, a lot better [than Thursday], the ultimate climb wasn’t as laborious as we in all probability anticipated, so it was a disgrace to not get extra out of it, however there’s lots extra to return,” O’Connor advised reporters on the stage 8 begin in Monzón.
Relating to the most important GC battles, he stated, “I believe simply purely the character of the course has been fairly simple, and finally not that technical – however it is going to come.”
Reward for UAE Crew Emirates-XRG
Having raced with African, French and now Australian groups, O’Connor has had loads of probabilities to check totally different squads and racing methods over time. On the Vuelta, UAE have opted for a technique of claiming stage wins whereas they will, reasonably than constructing a complete workforce round a pacesetter, as Visma have carried out with Vingegaard.
But when the startling distinction between Ayuso’s efficiency on Thursday and Friday – shedding huge quantities of GC time on one Pyrenean climb, solely to go for the stage has shocked many, O’Connor is just not amongst their quantity.
“I believe it is good, I believe it is nearly a good suggestion – somebody like Ayuso, he is clearly been capable of do GC previously, and he both cannot be bothered to do it right here, or would not assume he can scrape as much as his requirements, so why not go for phases and rack them up,” O’Connor requested rhetorically.
“You are still a high quality bike rider, and you are going to have the ability to get a very good day trip, it simply does not imply you have to do GC day in day trip. So I believe it is a good suggestion,” he mirrored.
Removed from UAE needing to be all-protecting of their now sole GC chief João Almeida, O’Connor argued, the comparatively simple racing within the opening Vuelta phases meant that an ‘all-for-one’ method was not but mandatory.
“It has been fairly simple already, it’s going to be totally different as soon as we’re in trickier days,” O’Connor concluded. “When there is a one or two-hour breakaway struggle, that is when you actually need the boys round you.”
These harder phases will certainly arrive within the Vuelta, notably in direction of the top of the second week from Bilbao onwards. However as O’Connor sees it, for now neither UAE nor he must get overly harassed: there will likely be loads of time additional down the street for that on this 12 months’s Vuelta a España.
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