To add insult to inconvenience, Ben O'Connor had finally descended Lagos de Covadonga for the second time on Tuesday evening when he learned that he had been fined 1000CHF and docked 20 UCI points for his troubles after stage 16 of the Vuelta a España.
The charge – "failing to attend official ceremonies or failing to respect the 10-minute deadline after the rider crosses the finish line" – felt rather like over-zealous officialdom manifest. At least some of the responsibility surely lay with the race organisation, who didn't have a chaperone on hand to marshal O'Connor from the finish line to the podium a few hundred metres below the summit.
No matter, O'Connor bore the ordeal with good grace when he arrived in the mixed zone in Arnuero before the start of stage 17, making light of the couple of hours he lost to descending Lagos de Covadonga and then getting a police escort back up again.
"The shower was a bit late, but I actually arrived at the hotel at the same time as the boys, so it wasn't the worst," O'Connor smiled, though he confessed to being a little vexed by the sanction handed down. "It's not like I deliberately skipped it or chose to miss it. I still came back up. But they deal it out as they do, so I can't really say anything else about it, to be fair."
O'Connor's athletic performance on Lagos de Covadonga was, like the rider himself after the stage, somewhat lost in all that fog, but he did enough on the Vuelta's sacred mountain to hold onto the red jersey by five seconds from Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
"Yeah, but I'd definitely have liked more seconds," O'Connor said. "It's a bit of a shame because, in the end, I think I didn't do that bad of a ride on Covadonga. In the end, I just think everyone in front did some very good riding."
Despite a slender lead and miserably wet conditions, O'Connor's maillot rojo was never under any real threat on the road to Santander on stage 17. The Australian reached the finish safely in the main peloton, though he was without the services of his usual bodyguard in situations like this, Sander De Pastel.
"Sadly, he had to leave the race this morning, so it was a bit of a shame to miss him on days like today," O'Connor said in the press conference truck in Santander. "Today we had Clément Berthet and Valentin Paret-Peintre at the front, but I think Clément had a bike problem at the finish, so in the end I was kind of floating through the wheels."
Worlds
The tight margins notwithstanding, O'Connor will be favoured to make another trip to the podium in Maestu after stage 18, but he knows this race will be ultimately decided by the summit finishes on the Alto de Moncalvillo and Picón Blanco, as well as the final time trial in Madrid.
"I'm going to keep on going like I've done this whole race," O'Connor said of his approach from here. "With grit, determination and kind of grovelling through, I've kept this jersey as long as I can, and hopefully it can stay on my shoulders for a few more days."
O'Connor confirmed on Wednesday evening that the Vuelta would be his final race with Decathlon-AG2R before his move to Jayco-Alula. His only remaining competition in 2024 would come at the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich, where he plans to ride the road race, time trial and mixed relay. "To drag the season out to October would be like putting a knife in me a little bit," he smiled.
Even without that imminent transfer, it's hard to shake off the sense that O'Connor's Vuelta performance marks a defining moment in his career. He already demonstrated his aptitude for three-week racing with fourth-place finishes at the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, but this Vuelta, however it plays out from here, has the feel of a turning point.
"Maybe it is defining, because of the length I've had the jersey, which is super special," O'Connor said. "Having this leader's jersey and being able to hold it for such a long time is a very special thing. You really only have that shot if you can win the race.
"And hopefully I can find myself in that position in the future, fighting to win Grand Tours. I've been close to the podium in Grand Tours before, but I've never had the chance to wear a jersey. So I guess you are right, it's a special moment for me."
With Roglič and Enric Mas closing in, however, it remains to be seen quite how special the moment will prove to be. Not for the first time this week, O'Connor was asked to rate his prospects of defending the red jersey all the way to Madrid. "I mean, I'd say probably low," he said. "But you never know with cycling."
