O’Connor seals solo stage win to claim Vuelta lead

Australia’s Ben O’Connor claimed a stunning solo victory on stage six of the Vuelta a Espana to take the leader’s red jersey from Primoz Roglic.

O’Connor went clear with 27km of the 185.5km course to Yunquera remaining and finished four minutes and 33 seconds ahead of Italian Marco Frigo.

The Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale rider, 28, has now won stages in all three of cycling’s Grand Tours.

Three-time champion Roglic was content to cede the leader’s jersey early in the race and the Slovenian rolled in with the peloton six minutes and 31 seconds down on O’Connor.

“I felt a little bit in my own world, I just went for it, I felt it was just a day to seize my opportunity and I laid it all out there,” O’Connor told Eurosport.

“I felt I could win this stage from the start – it’s pretty special when you can just go out and crush it like that.”

O’Connor won a Giro d’Italia stage in 2020 and a stage of the Tour de France in 2021.

He now leads Roglic by four minutes and 51 seconds in the general classification, with Portugal’s Joao Almeida eight seconds further back.

O’Connor could be a threat for the overall victory, having finished fourth at both this year’s Giro and the 2021 Tour.

German Florian Lipowitz finished third on the stage to move up to fourth overall, 19 seconds down on Almeida.

Defending champion Sepp Kuss is 15th – six minutes and five seconds behind O’Connor.

Stage six started inside a Carrefour supermarket in Jerez de la Frontera to mark the company’s sponsorship of the race.

O’Connor successfully made it across to a large breakaway group before he and Gijs Leemreize left the rest behind, but the Dutchman could not respond when O’Connor made his decisive move.

Friday’s stage seven is a 180.5km hilly route from Archidona to Cordoba.