{"id":1379,"date":"2024-08-22T22:51:47","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T17:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/blog\/"},"modified":"2024-09-01T14:22:31","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T08:37:31","slug":"australias-oconnor-opens-up-lead-at-la-vuelta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/news\/australias-oconnor-opens-up-lead-at-la-vuelta\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben O’Connor opens up lead after big win at La Vuelta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

YUNQUERA, Spain:<\/strong> Ben O\u2019Connor has turned the Spanish Vuelta on its head, with the Australian rider opening up a huge lead after a commanding victory on the hilly sixth stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Connor claimed the red leader\u2019s jersey from Primoz Roglic and jumped 4 minutes, 51 seconds ahead of the three-time Vuelta winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did feel a little bit like I was in my own world today,\u201d O\u2019Connor said about his fine day on the bike, on Thursday. \u201cI seized my opportunity and laid it all out there. It is pretty special when you can pretty much crush it from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Connor, a rider for Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale Team, dropped his fellow breakaway riders and then powered through the final 28 km on a solo run that took him over two category three climbs under a baking sun. He completed the 185.5-km route from Jerez de la Frontera to Yunquera in southern Spain in 4 hours and 28 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next rider, Marco Frigo, crossed over 4:30 minutes later, and the peloton, including Roglic of Red Bull-BORA Hansgrohe, finished over 6:30 minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jo\u00e3o Almeida, who is third overall at 4:59 behind, replied \u201cof course\u201d when asked if he’s worried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“O\u2019Connor is not just any other rider. It is going to be tough to reel in those five minutes he has,\u201d said Almeida of UAE Team Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The victory gave the 28-year-old O\u2019Connor stage wins at all three Grand Tours. He won a stage at the 2021 Tour de France, when he also finished cycling’s elite race fourth overall, and the 2020 Giro d\u2019Italia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an excellent opportunity, and I am just going to savour it as much as I can,\u201d O\u2019Connor said about his chances of winning the three-week race. (AP)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Related Images:<\/h3>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australian rider takes the red leader\u2019s jersey from Primoz Roglic as surges 4 minutes and 51 seconds ahead of the three-time Vuelta champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20,76],"class_list":["post-1379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cycling","tag-lavuelta"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"8850 Media","author_link":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/author\/usr_8850\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Ben-OConnor-300x200.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["News<\/a>"],"unlinked":["News<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Cycling<\/a>","LaVuelta<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Cycling<\/span>","LaVuelta<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 \u0935\u0930\u094d\u0937 ago","modified":"Updated 2 \u0935\u0930\u094d\u0937 ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 22 \u0905\u0917\u0938\u094d\u091f 2024","modified":"Updated on 1 \u0938\u0947\u092a\u094d\u091f\u0947\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0930 2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 22 \u0905\u0917\u0938\u094d\u091f 2024 22:51","modified":"Updated on 1 \u0938\u0947\u092a\u094d\u091f\u0947\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0930 2024 14:22"},"featured_img_caption":"[:en]Australian rider Ben O'Connor acknowledges the crowd after winning the 185.5-km long sixth stage between Jerez de la Frontera and Yunquera of La Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, on Thursday. Photo: La Vuelta<\/em>[:]","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1379"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1477,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions\/1477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}