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Australians Ben O’Connor, Kaden Groves and Jay Vine all graced the final podium at La Vuelta a Espana, joining Primož Roglič as he won a fourth Vuelta a España title on Sunday. Roglič sealed his fifth Grand Tour title in six years with a second-place finish in the final stage time trial in Madrid.
Roglič took his first stage victory on Stage 4 at Pico Villuerca, taking the leader’s jersey in the process, but he nearly lost his grip on the Vuelta victory when Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) broke away solo on Stage 6, gaining an almost five-minute lead on the stage to take over at the top of the GC standings.
The Slovenian and his team had the job of reducing the gap, picking up seconds and minutes along the way, and by his third stage win on Stage 19, he had regained the overall lead from the Australian. O’Connor had conceded in the final week that it would be difficult to hold off Roglič from taking the overall win, but he managed to hold on to claim second overall, his best result in a Grand Tour, and the best ever by an Australian at La Vuelta, eclipsing Cadel Evans’ third place in 2009.
“It’s a bit of a dream, I have been close before but to get it now is such an amazing thing,” O’Connor said after the finish.
“I was really surprised I could get to stage 19 still wearing the red jersey, and it’s pretty nice to have the feeling that one day that you could maybe win a GT.
“That’s something I’d probably have found unrealistic before, especially after the Giro. So to be so close here is pretty special.”
Kaden Groves took over the points classification lead after Wout van Aert crashed out during Stage 16 of the race, the Australian’s three stage wins over the course of the race putting him well clear of the rest of the competition once his Belgian rival bowed out.
Jay Vine was also the beneficiary of van Aert’s crash, the Belgian superstar also in the lead, albeit much closer, in the king of the mountains battle. Vine had ceded the lead on Stage 16 ahead of Van Aert crashing out, and then faced the hardest battle with his own teammate Marc Soler in the final stages, with the pair taking the honours over the majority of the remaining mid-stage climbs, with the jersey swapping between them.
On Stage 20, Vine and Soler again swapped the virtual lead of the jersey back and forth, not quite racing against each other’s interest, but not working perfectly together for one goal certainly. In the end, with it equal on points and soler holding the lead on a countback, Vine had to hang on after being caught by the peloton on the penultimate climb of the race, claiming a vital 2 points to move him just ahead of his teammate.
On the final stage, there were only two riders to break the 27-minute barrier, with Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) winning the final time trial with a blistering time of 26:28 on the 24.6km course. It marked the Swiss rider's first-ever stage victory in a Grand Tour after a string of second places in recent years.
Roglič was 31 seconds off the fastest time for second on the day while Mattia Cattaneo (T-Rex QuickStep) took third, 42 seconds down.
Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) set a fast time at the first checkpoint, before fading a little towards the end of the stage, still well enough to claim second spot on the final podium, 2’36 behind Roglič. Enric Mas (Movistar) secured third place, 3’13 down on the winner, making it now four podium finishes at the Vuelta for the Spaniard.
Mattias Skeljmose (Lidl-Trek) won the white jersey for the best young rider, 1'16 ahead of Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), while UAE Team Emirates took out the teams classification, giving Jay Vine another trip to the podium.
