An attacking feast over the Sierra de Malaga summits saw Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) fly away to the victory in Yunquera (stage 6), where he also claimed La Roja as the overall leader of La Vuelta 24. Part of a strong breakaway after an intense battle over the first ascent of the day, the Australian climber went solo with 27.5km to go and eventually won with a margin of 4’33’’ to his runner-up Marco Frigo (Israel Premier Tech). He becomes the 5th Australian overall leader of La Vuelta and the 5th Australian rider to win a stage in all three Grand Tours, after his previous victories in Tignes (Tour de France 2021) and Madonna di Campiglio (Giro d’Italia 2020). He also gifts his team their first leader jersey in La Vuelta, with a gap of 4'51'' to Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
La Vuelta 24 stays in Andalusia but the riders face much different challenges than the flat run-in to Sevilla, with 4 categorised ascent and 3,580m of elevation to overcome between Jerez de la Frontera and the summit finish of Yunquera (185.5km).
A huge battle and a strong breakaway
Attackers are inspired and it leads to an extremely intense battle on the valley leading to the first ascent of the day, the cat-1 Puerto del Boyar (summit at km 73.4). Dozens of riders attack, including Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike)…
Three climbers go clear at the summit: Clément Berthet (AG2R La Mondiale), Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar) and Cristian Rodriguez (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).
Ten riders join them on the downhill: Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), Mauri Vansevenant (T-Rex Quick-Step), Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Luca Vergallito (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Gijs Leemreize (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), Urko Berrade and Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma).
O’Connor’s one man show
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe set an easier pace in the bunch. Lipowitz is the best classified rider on GC (+1’50’’), ahead of O’Connor (+1’56’’) and Rodriguez (+1’58’’). The gap gets up to 5’10’’ (km 114) when Bahrain Victorious react. Moments later, O’Connor goes first at the intermediate sprint (km 119.5) and takes 6 bonus seconds.
The Australian climber then attacks with Leemreize on the second ascent of the day, the cat-3 Puerto del Viento. At the summit (km 130.3), Frigo, Sanchez and Berrade trail by 25’’, the rest of the attackers by 50’’ and the peloton by 5’30’’, with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe back at the helm.
O’Connor goes solo with 27.5 kilometres to go and opens massive gaps over the final summits of the day, the cat-3 ascents of Puerto Martinez (km 160.0) and Alto de las Abejas (finish). Frigo finishes with a gap of 4’33’’. And the peloton trail by 6’31’’ despite the efforts of UAE Team Emirates and Movistar.
