If I had a nickel for every time a GC contender was given huge time in a breakaway on stage 6 of La Vuelta, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice
On the sixth stage a break won the day and took an advantage of over four minutes. Gorospe took the leader's jersey. However, on the eleventh stage, Gorospe had a bad day and lost the jersey to Marco Giovannetti who had been second on the general classification and had been in the break that gained the time on the favourites. Delgado tried to close the gap to Giovannetti over the remainder of the race but could not. Giovannetti won his first and only grand tour ahead of Delgado and Anselmo Fuerte.
The Vuelta is getting bigger year on year but it is still not funded enough to be able to afford live coverage of all stages - generally they cover big mountain stages over weekends in full. Those helicopters alone are thousands of € per hour.
@@epincion I think it's worth it for Carrefour to sponsor the helicopter and live coverage on this stage, why would they pay to start in their market but not get the publicity that live coverage would've given them.
Whatever his form is, he’s no slouch when it comes to climbing and with this red jersey and 6 minutes gap he’ll not let it go that easily + they still got Félix gall in the GC. Such a dumb move form the gc guys especially Primoz who’s the strongest in this race so far.
@@stefanjoeres7149 they looked worried chasing him down tho. Stage 4 was punchy even Kuss was dropped it will be another story when it’s more about endurance in longer climbs
@@stefanjoeres7149 No he didn't, he lost 1'11. Less time than Carapaz and Yates. I don't see what a 2021 TdF stage has to do with much of anything. I don't think this parcours suits him but he was a borderline top 10 GC rider in the race beforehand so letting him have this much time feels completely unnecessary.
@@stefanjoeres7149 It was only a minute + 10 bonus seconds. That can happen to anyone. If Roglic was still in Visma, this would not happened. Very poor tactics and weak performance from Bora so far. Roglic is good but without strong team he can be beaten.
Congrats to O'Connor! Stage win in la Vuelta, completed the grand tour triple and rode into red - all in one day! Didn't have that on the bingo card for today which makes it even more beautiful. Very happy for him, who always comes across as such a genuine nice guy in the bunch
It depends if O'Conner's performance in stage 4 was really due to the extreme heat, and the rest of the mountain stages are not that hot. He could podium or even win. The fun thing is Roglic can not wait for sprints at the top of climbs, so he really needs to attack 4/5km out on the upcoming mountain stages, which makes the racing more exciting.
Roglic doesn’t need to go all out from 4-5K out, this is, if his team paces and o’Connor gets dropped on mountain finishes. But he better gets bonus seconds every time there is a mountain top finish. So bora will have to ride hard every day to try and tire o’connor before week 3, and they cannot afford to many breakaways fighting for the stage win in those mountain top stages.
Thanks Pat for this great summary. To such a good job takes time and I appreciate it. As to the seeming insouciance of Roglic about the gap to O’Connor going out and out, Nathan van Hooydonck acting as an expert commentator on Eurosport had an insightful reason, he said that the O’Connor lead of 4.5 mins does not worry Primoz as he knows that 1) he is 100% on form physically & mentally and 2) there are at least three days of big mountains coming up when he will easily take that back. Nathan said that the riders who will be worried are those aiming for third to fifth overall in the GC. This huge margin of Ben dooms them.
Which makes sense why RB didn't feel like it was their job to pace the peloton back. Of the podium hopefuls, the team with the strongest rider (who also has the best TT) should be the least worried about the gap extending out. But on the other hand, MOV and UAE had no interest in giving Roglic a free ride either.
@@discrep I must add the caveat that Roglic will not in any way like having to make up so many minutes and he will be furious at the fact that one of his team members who was in the breakaway was asleep at the switch when Ben: a) took the max 6 bonus seconds at the intermediate bonification point, and worse b) later on allowed Ben to get up the road. But of all the riders he is the only one certain to make it all up on Ben in the high mountains
O'Connor has fourth-place GC finishes in both the Tour and the Giro and ten top-10 GC finishes from 17 starts in top-tier stage races over the past four seasons. I doubt he can be caught from here, provided he isn't injured in a crash.
Man, seriously disrespectful to O'Connor to keep saying it was "gifted." Yes, Bora completely bolloxed up management of the gap, BUT give Ben his flowers -- everyone knew what the score was by the final climb and Bora and Bahrain were going full gas and they did not gain back a single second on that final climb. If they'd pulled back 2-3 mins, there would be no talk of "gifting." It was Ben, who turned a routine intentional hand-off of the jersey into a race-defining gap. Give him his due! And recognize that for him to hold the peloton to ZERO time gain on the final climb after having been out driving the break for 100km was a tour de force an incredible show of strength.
Exactly, he made all the decisive moves when he got no support. O'Connor is being dismissed as if he is donkey who has been allowed his 5 minutes in the limelight when he has good Grand Tour GC history that would have been better but for some crashes in the past. I think he'll hold on to a lead for quite some time and don't discount that he could actually win the Vuelta.
30 riders arrived together to the last climb. Ben was giving an all out effort. Everyone else was playing the co-leader card. They lack the will to work. They gave him time, he took the time. They also gave time to a bunch of guys and they took like 1min or something.
I think you're reading into it too much. It was a very strong ride from O'Connor, but the other teams definitely fumbled it up for him to take SUCH a big lead. He would have won and maybe gotten the red jersey, but this is mental outcome.
"Give Ben his flowers." Trying to figure out what sort of insult is buried in that one. Nice to see an Irish guy creating havoc. Of course Australia claim him in the same way that New Zealand claim Lydia Ko.
Wout was upset that the show made it seem like he's selfish or doesn't get on with his teammates. And I just don't agree with that. Is the question posed, would someone as strong as Wout in a very selfless team sport like this want to go for a stage win for himself? Very quickly answered that he's a beast, but a beast for his team. The ultimate teammate. It's like they think the show shouldn't have any drama at all
Ben O'Connor so deserves this. 100% confident athlete Felt he was not well represented in the Netflix series, and he's DS was / is an utter dick. Believe he could hold on to the jersey, but can his team support him. Not 100% if he has a strong enough team around him.
Dumb tactics are nothing new for them. Maybe they thought lipowitz could win but this is no reason for doing nothing. Although UAE or any other GC Team tried to gain time.
Video doesn't even mention but prerace coverage had danny martinez in the orginal break.... which bora chased back down. The second break was way worse for them and they just let it go.... It's truly hard to be this bad.
I kinda think the idea of giving the jersey away was always a bad idea for Bora, I know that it should theoretically save energy but Roglic has a real problem with hitting the deck and having the red jersey would have meant that Bora and Roglic were further up the peloton and less likely to get caught up in anything. Roglic seems pretty beat up at the moment, I think he said his back is still hurting so a fall that another rider might be able to shrug off could aggravate that.
That's the point - every day with the jersey is almost one hour less to recover(podium ceremony, interviewers and other duties when you are in the lead.
what a classic grand tour stage. This is an element of cycling sorely missed Kuss last year gets away when on strongest team not chasing. This is was like formigal stage almost perfect for break rolling and technical a day with right legs that can win you the title. Makes this vuelta already most interesting GT of year even if not as "historic". Refreshing already more significant jersey swap than in both Giro and Tour. Awesome performance. UAE numbers could be biggest threat trying to get someone away themselves. Primoz is legend he will to end but different without that super team capable of attacking almost any tyoe of stage for you. Really cool stage!
Eric caritoux , an almost unknown French rider got the lead of the vuelta and hung on to win it. 4:50 lead is massive. He could lose 30 seconds often, just can’t completely crack
This day begs lots of question but, if Roglic is being handicapped by back issues, the question becomes if he can make a sustained claw-back of time. Otherwise, it then becomes a matter of whether Bora really has the strategic smarts to manage a GC battle.
Why would they let the gap go if Roglic was not feeling fine? In that case they should have just dragged him around while they can and keeping the gap to a minimum. The only possible explanation is they feel super confident in Roglic taking 5+ minutes on Ben.
@@peterzemanovic2038well if Roglic is not fine, he was maybe pushing to his max (without having the pain in the back). Roglic looked very pissed at the finish line...
Great ride by BO'C. There's still a long way to go, but Decathlon and Van Rysal must be happy with the amount of coverage they'll get over the coming week or two.
roglic just passing it on to another team, makes it easier on his guys they aren't that strong yet. stage 4 was the first time bora ever paced for the win in the history of this new project, baby steps
Thomas Volkler got a time-gap once. And years before, there was a 29-minute gap. Volkler's hold-on for one final day meant two more stages, and energized that TdF. Still, for Ben O'Connor, there are high hopes... when's the last time anyone from AG2R was a hopeful?!!
I genuinley think Bora played this fine. O'Connor already dropped more than a minute on a serious climb, he'll drop more when the slops hit. I think Bora have however allowed O'Connor to disturb the podium contending teams, who'll be wanting that spot and now may well do a great deal more work than they would have otherwise. This isn't even the first time he's done this.
I completely agree. I think the only teams that got it right today were Decathlon and Bora. I think Roglic is fine, but I think everyone else will really regret how they played today.
The thing is he rode super strong today, to hold off and even extend the gap to the peloton like he did is a scary performance imo. There is a definite possibilty that he just had a few bad days and is now starting to get into shape, that might be Red Bull's problem with this move. That being said tho, it's such an unusually hard parcours that I still believe Roglic is going to get away with it, but they're playing with fire at Bora imo
That is a risky tactic, O'connor was less than 2 minutes behind Thomas in de Giro. Do you really think Roglic would easily take 3 mins on Thomas in Giro form? O'Conners result in giro was an outlier?
even if Roglic wasn't feeling good... he didn't have to pull, and after how he rode the last days I cannot believe that he was not able to follow if they had chased harder. I think Bora made a huge mistake today - and so did Visma.Lease A Bike and UAE! 2 or 3 min, ok - but not more than 6!
O’Connor is a loose cannon and prone to emotional meltdowns . 5 minutes is a big advantage and he has to win sometime if they can manage tactics for 2 more weeks.
Honestly, it is a big gamble from Bora to let O'Connor make such a gap. Almost 5 minutes ? At least it will make those last 15 days pretty interesting !
Great breakdown. Incredible ride by O'Connor. I can't wait to see the stage where Roglic drops O'Connor and has Sepp on his wheel and he won't contribute to the move allowing O'Connor to win the Vuelta. 😁
Roglic has overcome set backs before. Ride thru the pain, skyward to victory!! 🎉🎉 does increase my appetite for the rest of the race tho. Up to now it had been let’s say grim…
You know, the real winners here are the GC guys out of the top 3, and especially out of the top 10. They got a free ride all day and zero stress. Could benefit them later!
It all depends on how O'Connor is going to ride. The only way to win for him is to ride his own tempo and use his time advantage. If he rides like O'Connor does then he will lose whole race on one stage. Competition between Bora and UEA can also play to his advantage.
He needs to just follow wheels now, and he will have plenty to choose from. Since he is so far up alone, any GC contender attacks, Ben can just let the others close it cause they will have a much smaller gap to defend than he will.
Yeah, 2019, Roglic and Nibali let him get away and Landa was trapped. It wasn't a bit gap like today either. That Vuelta is now O'Connor's to lose. He's also got Gall to help in case of a problem. He's had a few bad years in GTs but this is looking extremely good for him !
Great analysis as always! It seems that RB Bora Hansgrohe are not used to being in this position and organising themselves - crazy. Red Bull isn't going to be happy with such mis-management. Is Roglic currently that good to close 5 min in 14 stages on Ben O'Connor - I'm not so sure. Feels like RB BH and Roglic have dropped the ball big style!
I have a feeling that Bora deliberately allowed this to happen because Rolic is in such good and confident form, Sure It's a gamble, but 1. he didnt look phased or upset at the end of the stage 2. It means the team can be saved from riding and keep their powder dry. 3. Roglic is a great time trialist and he knows he will take time back on the TT 4. There is a lot of climbing to go - I think Roglic believes he can put time into O'Connor when he needs to without exhausting his team. 5. Is Decathlon strong enough to make a good defence or will they burn out? Dead fascinating situation . . . will be fun watching!
5 minutes on GC, I think RB cocked-up. And with his past record, one has to ask - has Roglic crashed already in this Vuelta? No? He's gonna crash......
I understand if it was a minute or two but allowing him to get up the road by 5-6 minutes is insane to me. The race is long enough that it will likely be inconsequential, but let's say primoz has a bad day or a crash - its on for Benny
@@jalaladhiri6696o anche Evenepoel...davvero 5 minuti davvero difficili da recuperare da parte di roglic anche perché non è più tanto giovane (35 anni) e quindi deve fare grande lavoro lui e la sua squadra se vuole riuscirci,oppure o connor deve avere giornata in cui non sta bene per nulla
This mistake will force the GC contenders' teams to push their domestiques hard to close those splits, leading to early fatigue. Teams like UAE and Bora might find themselves vulnerable, with other teams sitting on their wheels, waiting to attack in the third week when they no longer have the manpower to respond effectively. I’m also curious to see how Decathlon AG2R will protect Ben. They performed well in the Giro, but their Tour de France performance left much to be desired. It wouldn’t be surprising if an outsider ends up winning this Vuelta.
Going into the vuelta I’m taking primoz over O’Connor easily and estimating a 3+ minute gc gap. That’s how much better I think primoz is. But you don’t need to give the guy a free 4:50 gap. He is good enough to make you need to work for it. Considering they could’ve easily put the team to work to bring it down a minute or two, it’s foolish to let him go on the premise that the time can be made back later. It’s an excessive risk
BOC might blow up on the very next stage, but he might not. He is not some guy from Intermarche wanty. Riders (from multiple teams) didn't want to work today? Now they will have to work every day until that gap is 0 seconds. Now vlasov, sivakov, del toro, martinez, Quintana, all these "second threats" will have to work. Edit: And its not like Decathlon team is a bunch of scrubs. They have Bruno and Victor for the rolling hilly stages, along with bouchard and Gall and VPP for the mountain. If BOC is on Giro shape, I'm gonna risk saying that he just might win it.
Or UAE Team Emirates likes to have pressure on Roglič, meaning he can't ride conservative and then punch the last km, take a few seconds and bonis all the time. So if Bora ride hard to crack O'Connor, Roglič could get isolated and diesel Almeida could capitalise on a Roglič crack. Whenever teams actually put pressure on him he cracks like on the final stage of Dauphiné, where his team didn't decide tempo but Visma and Ineos paced hard. UAE need to let Bora ride hard early on in the climb, and then smash it with Vine, Sivakov, Del Toro and Yates
The problem last year, was the fact that the inferior rider that got the gap gifted by his own team, who also was the strongest team there, and he was was on the team with the worlds best grand tourer Vingegaard, and also the second strongest rider in Vuelta Roglic, so his biggest competitor was his own captains. and it created this weird situation, where the whole final week we all been waiting for' was more or less nulled, by social media radicals that decided that it didn't matter who was captain and it shouldn't be the strongest rider that should win, but instead we should now gift Grand Tours to teammates. It really hurt this dutch Visma team, even to this day, the lack of manager leadership was mindbending, and kudos to Roglic, for speaking his mind, even though social media literally was threatening him on his life, for being honest.. The way Jumbo Visma handled the situation in Vuelta 2023 was awful and it has just created so much fuzz.. even from Kuss .. that indicated that he wanted a shared Catain role in fx 2024 Tour De France as he was now a grand tour winner, and since his motivation been nowhere. Visma's 2023 Vuelta was a huge display in how not to run a professional cycling team and literally let social media set your tactic... I know they since change certain aspects of the management in Visma, but still.. it really hurt that dutch team.
You say it. It is so strange. So many questions! Why did Lipowitz not go with O'Conner? He could have been a second option for BORA in the GC and take pressure off from Roglic. And when he was dropped, why did BORA not chase with the peleton?
Just read an interview with Florian Lippowitz. He stated that he was surprised by O'Connors strong attack and could not follow. BORA wanted to give away the red jersey but not that much :D
I don't think Ben O'Connor is winning it in the end, but I didn't think Kuss would win it last year either. Sometimes a leaders jersey just simply gives you that extra motivation and if there's one thing that's always held O'Connor back, then it's his mentality. Him shouting up a mountain in the 2022 tour comes to mind.
If I had a nickel for every time a GC contender was given huge time in a breakaway on stage 6 of La Vuelta, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice
Hello Dr Doofenschmirtz
3 nickels, 1990 Vuelta
On the sixth stage a break won the day and took an advantage of over four minutes. Gorospe took the leader's jersey. However, on the eleventh stage, Gorospe had a bad day and lost the jersey to Marco Giovannetti who had been second on the general classification and had been in the break that gained the time on the favourites. Delgado tried to close the gap to Giovannetti over the remainder of the race but could not. Giovannetti won his first and only grand tour ahead of Delgado and Anselmo Fuerte.
@@TheSHAD0W93 4 nickels, 2019*
Play your "cards" (coins) right, you could leverage those 2 nickles into a dime.
Can't believe there's no coverage of the supermarket start 🤣
th-cam.com/video/1dUMLp-s2yE/w-d-xo.html
The Vuelta is getting bigger year on year but it is still not funded enough to be able to afford live coverage of all stages - generally they cover big mountain stages over weekends in full. Those helicopters alone are thousands of € per hour.
Checkout chicks could not cope with the queue!!
@@epincion I think it's worth it for Carrefour to sponsor the helicopter and live coverage on this stage, why would they pay to start in their market but not get the publicity that live coverage would've given them.
Lidl wasn’t having it 😂
O'Connor took 4th at the Giro this year less than 3 minutes behind everyone but Pogacar.
aint gonna be easy to recover those minutes. Bit this just spices up la vuelta!
Whatever his form is, he’s no slouch when it comes to climbing and with this red jersey and 6 minutes gap he’ll not let it go that easily + they still got Félix gall in the GC. Such a dumb move form the gc guys especially Primoz who’s the strongest in this race so far.
Ben lost 2 minutes on stage 4. In the 2021 tour O'Connor blew up on the Ventoux stage. I don't think Roglic and Almeida are overly worried.
@@stefanjoeres7149 they looked worried chasing him down tho. Stage 4 was punchy even Kuss was dropped it will be another story when it’s more about endurance in longer climbs
@@mehdibrahimi3575 stage 13, 15, 16 an 19 all have some pretty bad rampas in the final, I guess eventually he'll struggle on one of those
@@stefanjoeres7149 No he didn't, he lost 1'11. Less time than Carapaz and Yates. I don't see what a 2021 TdF stage has to do with much of anything. I don't think this parcours suits him but he was a borderline top 10 GC rider in the race beforehand so letting him have this much time feels completely unnecessary.
@@stefanjoeres7149 It was only a minute + 10 bonus seconds. That can happen to anyone. If Roglic was still in Visma, this would not happened. Very poor tactics and weak performance from Bora so far. Roglic is good but without strong team he can be beaten.
You never know what can happen...Roglic has a pretty good record of being never too far from a Grand Tour ending crash.
Very very high chance to happen on TDF, on Vuelta, very small chance.
lmao
@@savievankintlike 2022 then 😅
@@savievankintNot really. He already lost a Vuelta to remco because he fell
@@joaogoncalves6517 yes, thats why I said 'very small' chance.
Congrats to O'Connor! Stage win in la Vuelta, completed the grand tour triple and rode into red - all in one day! Didn't have that on the bingo card for today which makes it even more beautiful. Very happy for him, who always comes across as such a genuine nice guy in the bunch
O'Connor HELD and EXTENDED the gap against bahrain, movistar, and UAE. storng ride.
That means those teams have zero respect for O’Connor and expecting him to blow up in later stages.
@@marylandflyer5670 which is weird given he finished 4th in the TdF a few years ago and 4th in the giro this year.
@@marylandflyer5670 zero respect ? maybe zero consideration.
but not redbull bora??? Am I missing something?
@@chaiinspace2And is also a favorite to win the Vuelta.
It depends if O'Conner's performance in stage 4 was really due to the extreme heat, and the rest of the mountain stages are not that hot. He could podium or even win. The fun thing is Roglic can not wait for sprints at the top of climbs, so he really needs to attack 4/5km out on the upcoming mountain stages, which makes the racing more exciting.
Put Kuss on his wheel .. just because.
Roglic doesn’t need to go all out from 4-5K out, this is, if his team paces and o’Connor gets dropped on mountain finishes. But he better gets bonus seconds every time there is a mountain top finish. So bora will have to ride hard every day to try and tire o’connor before week 3, and they cannot afford to many breakaways fighting for the stage win in those mountain top stages.
you'd think the aussie could handle the heat...
Staying up longer just so i can get the good recap/breakdown
I just watch it in the morning with my breakfast.
Great day for Ben. I hope he can stay calm and make it a exciting battle for gc
Not just Roglic.....Mas and Almeida have something to think about as well.....
No one wanted to pull Roglic.
Thanks so much for the great breakdown of all the dynamics going on during this stage.
Thanks Pat for this great summary. To such a good job takes time and I appreciate it.
As to the seeming insouciance of Roglic about the gap to O’Connor going out and out, Nathan van Hooydonck acting as an expert commentator on Eurosport had an insightful reason, he said that the O’Connor lead of 4.5 mins does not worry Primoz as he knows that 1) he is 100% on form physically & mentally and 2) there are at least three days of big mountains coming up when he will easily take that back.
Nathan said that the riders who will be worried are those aiming for third to fifth overall in the GC. This huge margin of Ben dooms them.
Which makes sense why RB didn't feel like it was their job to pace the peloton back. Of the podium hopefuls, the team with the strongest rider (who also has the best TT) should be the least worried about the gap extending out. But on the other hand, MOV and UAE had no interest in giving Roglic a free ride either.
@@discrep I must add the caveat that Roglic will not in any way like having to make up so many minutes and he will be furious at the fact that one of his team members who was in the breakaway was asleep at the switch when Ben: a) took the max 6 bonus seconds at the intermediate bonification point, and worse b) later on allowed Ben to get up the road. But of all the riders he is the only one certain to make it all up on Ben in the high mountains
O'Connor has fourth-place GC finishes in both the Tour and the Giro and ten top-10 GC finishes from 17 starts in top-tier stage races over the past four seasons. I doubt he can be caught from here, provided he isn't injured in a crash.
Man, seriously disrespectful to O'Connor to keep saying it was "gifted." Yes, Bora completely bolloxed up management of the gap, BUT give Ben his flowers -- everyone knew what the score was by the final climb and Bora and Bahrain were going full gas and they did not gain back a single second on that final climb. If they'd pulled back 2-3 mins, there would be no talk of "gifting." It was Ben, who turned a routine intentional hand-off of the jersey into a race-defining gap. Give him his due! And recognize that for him to hold the peloton to ZERO time gain on the final climb after having been out driving the break for 100km was a tour de force an incredible show of strength.
Exactly, he made all the decisive moves when he got no support. O'Connor is being dismissed as if he is donkey who has been allowed his 5 minutes in the limelight when he has good Grand Tour GC history that would have been better but for some crashes in the past. I think he'll hold on to a lead for quite some time and don't discount that he could actually win the Vuelta.
An obvious case of underestimating a rider. Which in itself is pompous.
30 riders arrived together to the last climb. Ben was giving an all out effort. Everyone else was playing the co-leader card. They lack the will to work. They gave him time, he took the time. They also gave time to a bunch of guys and they took like 1min or something.
I think you're reading into it too much. It was a very strong ride from O'Connor, but the other teams definitely fumbled it up for him to take SUCH a big lead. He would have won and maybe gotten the red jersey, but this is mental outcome.
"Give Ben his flowers." Trying to figure out what sort of insult is buried in that one.
Nice to see an Irish guy creating havoc. Of course Australia claim him in the same
way that New Zealand claim Lydia Ko.
I think Bora's plan was to get Lipowitz up there on GC to around Roglic's time, so they have the 2nd gc rider card to play out on moutain stages
Roglic just gave himself an even bigger mountain to climb. He has to hope that O'Connor blows up marking him now.
Not just that, but on the bigger mountains he's just got to stay with him until he attacks, and then just ride his own pace to the finish.
Hey Pat when is the 'GC BOC' t-shirt getting printed? Same respect needed as GC Kuss.
Would love to see Ben O'Connor win this tour, I don't know how likely that really is but he's a very likeable athlete.
Didn't really come off so well in the Netflix series Unchained, though.
@@biscaynediver Like Drive to Survive, Ride to Survive is fake af, at least according to Wout.
@@Dexter037S4 I'm sure they amp up drama thru editing, but you can't fake the tantrums.
He is not likable at all. We saw his karen mood in netflix.
Wout was upset that the show made it seem like he's selfish or doesn't get on with his teammates. And I just don't agree with that. Is the question posed, would someone as strong as Wout in a very selfless team sport like this want to go for a stage win for himself? Very quickly answered that he's a beast, but a beast for his team. The ultimate teammate. It's like they think the show shouldn't have any drama at all
Excellent recap and analysis of the timing and team strategy plays going on. 🙏
Great narration , as always!
This race ought to be great now, cause everyone is gonna have to team up and attack Decathlon
They should have done it today.
Ben O'Connor so deserves this. 100% confident athlete Felt he was not well represented in the Netflix series, and he's DS was / is an utter dick. Believe he could hold on to the jersey, but can his team support him. Not 100% if he has a strong enough team around him.
Great summary and analysis! I so want Ben to win the overall.
I was waiting for your race recap. Great stage and finally I can got to bed :)
Bora must mean dumb as bricks in German. This must be one of the worst day ever in cycling tactics, except for Ben of course. Well done!
Dumb tactics are nothing new for them. Maybe they thought lipowitz could win but this is no reason for doing nothing. Although UAE or any other GC Team tried to gain time.
That sounds a bit disrespectful. After we recently saw stage 5 of le tour femme you can not say that, that was way worse.
Video doesn't even mention but prerace coverage had danny martinez in the orginal break.... which bora chased back down. The second break was way worse for them and they just let it go.... It's truly hard to be this bad.
far from Movistar levels. They auditioned for Dumb and Dumber 3
Yes it was pathetic..I would rather watch eneos ride on the front for no reason than watch the gc ride away while roglic has a snooze 😅
I kinda think the idea of giving the jersey away was always a bad idea for Bora, I know that it should theoretically save energy but Roglic has a real problem with hitting the deck and having the red jersey would have meant that Bora and Roglic were further up the peloton and less likely to get caught up in anything.
Roglic seems pretty beat up at the moment, I think he said his back is still hurting so a fall that another rider might be able to shrug off could aggravate that.
Kuss must be amused.
I delayed my "go to sleep time" to wait for this video
the peloton should have delayed their sleep time, too xD
I dunno if O'Connor will win, but 5 minutes is a huge gap. he'll hold the jersey for a good while at least. like a week.
That's the point - every day with the jersey is almost one hour less to recover(podium ceremony, interviewers and other duties when you are in the lead.
Great recap, thanks. Ben can hold the jersey to the end. I hope...
Love how Ben is riding. Hope he goes all the way.
When was the last time the gap between 1st and 2nd in a Grand Tour stage was as big as today?
The one day I'm not working from home! Hope Ben has a team to help him defend the lead!
what a classic grand tour stage. This is an element of cycling sorely missed Kuss last year gets away when on strongest team not chasing. This is was like formigal stage almost perfect for break rolling and technical a day with right legs that can win you the title. Makes this vuelta already most interesting GT of year even if not as "historic".
Refreshing already more significant jersey swap than in both Giro and Tour. Awesome performance. UAE numbers could be biggest threat trying to get someone away themselves. Primoz is legend he will to end but different without that super team capable of attacking almost any tyoe of stage for you. Really cool stage!
BOC showing those 💎💎 legs, what a chance for another Aussie grand tour winner
BOC also known as Blue Oyster Cult 🙂
Eric caritoux , an almost unknown French rider got the lead of the vuelta and hung on to win it. 4:50 lead is massive. He could lose 30 seconds often, just can’t completely crack
This day begs lots of question but, if Roglic is being handicapped by back issues, the question becomes if he can make a sustained claw-back of time. Otherwise, it then becomes a matter of whether Bora really has the strategic smarts to manage a GC battle.
Amazing ride by O'Connor, I hope he can hold on and take this race, he deserves a big break through result.
One possible explanation is that Roglic's back is restricting him - he mentioned feeling it after his stage win, maybe there's been a reaction.
Why would they let the gap go if Roglic was not feeling fine? In that case they should have just dragged him around while they can and keeping the gap to a minimum. The only possible explanation is they feel super confident in Roglic taking 5+ minutes on Ben.
@@peterzemanovic2038well if Roglic is not fine, he was maybe pushing to his max (without having the pain in the back). Roglic looked very pissed at the finish line...
Good luck getting that jersey of a good gc rider in that kind of form. Scary
Great ride by BO'C. There's still a long way to go, but Decathlon and Van Rysal must be happy with the amount of coverage they'll get over the coming week or two.
Momentum is hard to stop, Ben is becoming a very smart rider, I thought Bora was strange in the tour also
Ben in Red...lets goooooooo ❤🎉
roglic just passing it on to another team, makes it easier on his guys they aren't that strong yet. stage 4 was the first time bora ever paced for the win in the history of this new project, baby steps
Excelente análisis 👏🏼
Lipowitz actually said he initially didn't plan to go into the break.
Hoping we get to see Ben O'Voeckler defend the jersey for the next 10 days.
Thomas Volkler got a time-gap once. And years before, there was a 29-minute gap. Volkler's hold-on for one final day meant two more stages, and energized that TdF. Still, for Ben O'Connor, there are high hopes... when's the last time anyone from AG2R was a hopeful?!!
Happy for Ben… 🥃
Bora and UAE today's tactic will turn into a huge mistake for both teams
depends, if it is 4D chess and just avoiding attentions, post race interviews, to save time, energy, focus for key point stages
@@filda2005 A couple of minutes would have been enough for all that
I genuinley think Bora played this fine. O'Connor already dropped more than a minute on a serious climb, he'll drop more when the slops hit. I think Bora have however allowed O'Connor to disturb the podium contending teams, who'll be wanting that spot and now may well do a great deal more work than they would have otherwise. This isn't even the first time he's done this.
I completely agree. I think the only teams that got it right today were Decathlon and Bora. I think Roglic is fine, but I think everyone else will really regret how they played today.
The thing is he rode super strong today, to hold off and even extend the gap to the peloton like he did is a scary performance imo. There is a definite possibilty that he just had a few bad days and is now starting to get into shape, that might be Red Bull's problem with this move. That being said tho, it's such an unusually hard parcours that I still believe Roglic is going to get away with it, but they're playing with fire at Bora imo
I really dont think the teams allow themselves to scheme this much. They simply lost many minutes to a legit GC contender and that is a fckup.
This. Podium teams have to do their work on the front and try to push O'Connor back. Roglic wants a win, the amount does not matter.
That is a risky tactic, O'connor was less than 2 minutes behind Thomas in de Giro.
Do you really think Roglic would easily take 3 mins on Thomas in Giro form? O'Conners result in giro was an outlier?
even if Roglic wasn't feeling good... he didn't have to pull, and after how he rode the last days I cannot believe that he was not able to follow if they had chased harder. I think Bora made a huge mistake today - and so did Visma.Lease A Bike and UAE! 2 or 3 min, ok - but not more than 6!
O'Connor is 2024's Sepp Cuss! Go Ben!
I am rooting for anybody but Benedict Roglic to win, so I savored today's stage!
Everyone must remember what happened last year on stage 6!
O’Connor is a loose cannon and prone to emotional meltdowns . 5 minutes is a big advantage and he has to win sometime if they can manage tactics for 2 more weeks.
Honestly, it is a big gamble from Bora to let O'Connor make such a gap. Almost 5 minutes ?
At least it will make those last 15 days pretty interesting !
Great breakdown. Incredible ride by O'Connor. I can't wait to see the stage where Roglic drops O'Connor and has Sepp on his wheel and he won't contribute to the move allowing O'Connor to win the Vuelta. 😁
Kuss won't ride with Roglic - agreed. Kuss never shows it but you know he is pissed off about what Roglic did last year.
@@paulevans6403Vingegard was the one who almost took GC from Kuss, not Roglic
I hope so hard Ben O'Connor wins this Vuelta ! 😁
(Sadly, it will not append... But may be podium. 🤔)
If Ben can keep focused hes got a damn good chance.
It's so hard being a Roglic fan 😭
Fingers crossed for Ben! Not a foregone conclusion by any means.
Roglic has overcome set backs before. Ride thru the pain, skyward to victory!! 🎉🎉 does increase my appetite for the rest of the race tho. Up to now it had been let’s say grim…
You know, the real winners here are the GC guys out of the top 3, and especially out of the top 10. They got a free ride all day and zero stress. Could benefit them later!
It all depends on how O'Connor is going to ride. The only way to win for him is to ride his own tempo and use his time advantage. If he rides like O'Connor does then he will lose whole race on one stage. Competition between Bora and UEA can also play to his advantage.
He needs to just follow wheels now, and he will have plenty to choose from. Since he is so far up alone, any GC contender attacks, Ben can just let the others close it cause they will have a much smaller gap to defend than he will.
Didn't Carapaz win the Giro a few years back when Roglic let him run off in a breakaway in an early stage?
Yeah, 2019, Roglic and Nibali let him get away and Landa was trapped. It wasn't a bit gap like today either.
That Vuelta is now O'Connor's to lose. He's also got Gall to help in case of a problem.
He's had a few bad years in GTs but this is looking extremely good for him !
@@PeakabikeI'd still rate Carapaz higher but the gap is bigger. So Ben better win this one.
Well done Ben O'Connor, you deserve your place in the top 10.
Great analysis as always! It seems that RB Bora Hansgrohe are not used to being in this position and organising themselves - crazy. Red Bull isn't going to be happy with such mis-management. Is Roglic currently that good to close 5 min in 14 stages on Ben O'Connor - I'm not so sure. Feels like RB BH and Roglic have dropped the ball big style!
From a guy who was 4th in Giro and TDF overall you should be a little bit worried
This is going to be a real issue for the team to deal with. It is not only o'Connor who has to defend the lead. Can the team take on that role?
Nice problem to have. Beats finishing last.
"o connor is on a different team to roglic... I think " 😂
Ben is going to win la vuelta. He will not loose that much time when he’s in red.
Nah, he’s not consistent enough to carry it home.
Hear the quokka ROOOAAR!
The only explanation I cn think about is that Roglic wasn't feeling very good... If he had nice legs the team Bora would have made a stronger pace...
I wouldn't mind if O'Connor kept the jersey.
What a brilliant ride!
Has anyone contacted you for Phil's job? You're the best candidate.
I have a feeling that Bora deliberately allowed this to happen because Rolic is in such good and confident form, Sure It's a gamble, but
1. he didnt look phased or upset at the end of the stage
2. It means the team can be saved from riding and keep their powder dry.
3. Roglic is a great time trialist and he knows he will take time back on the TT
4. There is a lot of climbing to go - I think Roglic believes he can put time into O'Connor when he needs to without exhausting his team.
5. Is Decathlon strong enough to make a good defence or will they burn out?
Dead fascinating situation . . . will be fun watching!
5 minutes on GC, I think RB cocked-up. And with his past record, one has to ask - has Roglic crashed already in this Vuelta? No? He's gonna crash......
Your logic.. And with his past record, one has to ask - Did he win the Vuelta already? Yes? He's gonna win again.. LUL
I understand if it was a minute or two but allowing him to get up the road by 5-6 minutes is insane to me. The race is long enough that it will likely be inconsequential, but let's say primoz has a bad day or a crash - its on for Benny
Only pogacar and Vingegard can pull 5 minutes of Ben O'connor in a grand tour
He is the favourite to win right now
@@jalaladhiri6696o anche Evenepoel...davvero 5 minuti davvero difficili da recuperare da parte di roglic anche perché non è più tanto giovane (35 anni) e quindi deve fare grande lavoro lui e la sua squadra se vuole riuscirci,oppure o connor deve avere giornata in cui non sta bene per nulla
This mistake will force the GC contenders' teams to push their domestiques hard to close those splits, leading to early fatigue. Teams like UAE and Bora might find themselves vulnerable, with other teams sitting on their wheels, waiting to attack in the third week when they no longer have the manpower to respond effectively. I’m also curious to see how Decathlon AG2R will protect Ben. They performed well in the Giro, but their Tour de France performance left much to be desired. It wouldn’t be surprising if an outsider ends up winning this Vuelta.
lets see after the first rest day!
Going into the vuelta I’m taking primoz over O’Connor easily and estimating a 3+ minute gc gap. That’s how much better I think primoz is. But you don’t need to give the guy a free 4:50 gap. He is good enough to make you need to work for it. Considering they could’ve easily put the team to work to bring it down a minute or two, it’s foolish to let him go on the premise that the time can be made back later. It’s an excessive risk
That's it. Done. Congrats Ben 1st vuekta win.
This Ben O'Connor dominance is getting boring allready....
BOC might blow up on the very next stage, but he might not. He is not some guy from Intermarche wanty.
Riders (from multiple teams) didn't want to work today? Now they will have to work every day until that gap is 0 seconds. Now vlasov, sivakov, del toro, martinez, Quintana, all these "second threats" will have to work.
Edit: And its not like Decathlon team is a bunch of scrubs. They have Bruno and Victor for the rolling hilly stages, along with bouchard and Gall and VPP for the mountain. If BOC is on Giro shape, I'm gonna risk saying that he just might win it.
It's not just on Bora. Every GC team fucked up today. How they couldn't coordinate a proper chase against one single guy, is perplexing to me.
Or UAE Team Emirates likes to have pressure on Roglič, meaning he can't ride conservative and then punch the last km, take a few seconds and bonis all the time. So if Bora ride hard to crack O'Connor, Roglič could get isolated and diesel Almeida could capitalise on a Roglič crack. Whenever teams actually put pressure on him he cracks like on the final stage of Dauphiné, where his team didn't decide tempo but Visma and Ineos paced hard. UAE need to let Bora ride hard early on in the climb, and then smash it with Vine, Sivakov, Del Toro and Yates
It seems like UAE and Visma hate each other so much, each would rather see the other one lose than even win themselves.
@@biscaynediver 🤣 that's true, they've been at it at least since 2020 i gotta say
Ben's done a Pog! 😮
If I keep watching will I start to understand what's going on? A little overwhelmed as a newb!
Yes, keep watching. 0
Go Ben!
The problem last year, was the fact that the inferior rider that got the gap gifted by his own team, who also was the strongest team there, and he was was on the team with the worlds best grand tourer Vingegaard, and also the second strongest rider in Vuelta Roglic, so his biggest competitor was his own captains.
and it created this weird situation, where the whole final week we all been waiting for' was more or less nulled, by social media radicals that decided that it didn't matter who was captain and it shouldn't be the strongest rider that should win, but instead we should now gift Grand Tours to teammates.
It really hurt this dutch Visma team, even to this day, the lack of manager leadership was mindbending, and kudos to Roglic, for speaking his mind, even though social media literally was threatening him on his life, for being honest..
The way Jumbo Visma handled the situation in Vuelta 2023 was awful and it has just created so much fuzz.. even from Kuss .. that indicated that he wanted a shared Catain role in fx 2024 Tour De France as he was now a grand tour winner, and since his motivation been nowhere.
Visma's 2023 Vuelta was a huge display in how not to run a professional cycling team and literally let social media set your tactic... I know they since change certain aspects of the management in Visma, but still.. it really hurt that dutch team.
What were those DS's thinking?
i would be a bit worried about ben oconnor but what do i know. im routing for him.
You say it. It is so strange. So many questions! Why did Lipowitz not go with O'Conner? He could have been a second option for BORA in the GC and take pressure off from Roglic. And when he was dropped, why did BORA not chase with the peleton?
Just read an interview with Florian Lippowitz. He stated that he was surprised by O'Connors strong attack and could not follow. BORA wanted to give away the red jersey but not that much :D
My gut response? O'Connor has it. Top step podium, here he comes.
Nice Ben
You never know. Ben might take the red jersey all the way to Madrid.
let's see how Decathlon riders support the rest of the stage.
I don't think Ben O'Connor is winning it in the end, but I didn't think Kuss would win it last year either.
Sometimes a leaders jersey just simply gives you that extra motivation and if there's one thing that's always held O'Connor back, then it's his mentality.
Him shouting up a mountain in the 2022 tour comes to mind.