{"id":111166,"date":"2025-09-01T04:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T04:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111166\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T04:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T04:45:09","slug":"i-couldnt-care-less-what-people-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111166\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I Couldn\u2019t Care Less What People Think\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben O\u2019Connor pushes back at critics of Vuelta GC logjam: \u201cNo one has the right to comment on how we should race. Every day is full-on to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

O’Connor isn’t afraid to say what he thinks. (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Published August 31, 2025 08:21AM<\/p>\n

ALFARO, Spain (Velo) \u2014 Ben O\u2019Connor<\/a> pushed back against armchair sport directors who are calling the opening week and the deadlocked GC battle at the 2025 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> \u201cboring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jayco-AlUla<\/a> leader hit back Sunday, insisting the uneventful GC fight that\u2019s knotted up after a full week of racing is simply the calm before the storm.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t expect fireworks every single day,\u201d O\u2019Connor told Velo at Sunday\u2019s start.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I couldn\u2019t care less what people think about how we race. By the end of three weeks, everyone is on their limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australian\u2019s blunt words come after an admittedly muted opening week that produced stage drama but no major GC fireworks.<\/p>\n

Visma-Lease a Bike is keeping its matches dry, happy to let Bahrain Victorious carry red while UAE Emirates-XRG collected stage wins with Juan Ayuso and Jay Vine.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor can\u2019t understand where the criticism is coming from.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has the right to comment on how we should race. It\u2019s up to us, and we\u2019re all professionals,\u201d O\u2019Connor told Velo. \u201cEvery day is full-on to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding space for the GC: \u2018There\u2019s no let-up after rest day\u2019
\n\"O'Connor\"O\u2019Connor is hanging tough so far in the GC. (Photo: MARCO BERTORELLO\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor knows how the Vuelta can trick anyone who lets down their guard.<\/p>\n

He is bracing for what\u2019s in store in the climb-heavy second and third weeks of the Vuelta. With so many mountains stacked up across northern Spain, there might not be another sprint stage until Madrid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no let-up at all from that point,\u201d he said of Monday\u2019s rest day. \u201cThe Bilbao stage [Wednesday] will be really tricky, and there\u2019ll be gaps. You\u2019ll probably see a bigger fight for the breakaway.<\/p>\n

\u2018Last year it was the same. It wasn\u2019t until later that the breakaways really got going.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor returns to the Vuelta after his breakout 2024 edition, when he won a stage and finished second overall.<\/p>\n

A high-profile transfer to Jayco-AlUla saw big pressure piled on O\u2019Connor, who paid back the support with a massive victory in the Alps in stage 18<\/a> at the Tour de France to save his Tour after his GC aspirations caved early.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor said the reason week 1 at this Vuelta might have seemed low-octane is that the closing two weeks will require turbo engines to survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s plenty more to come. The nature of the course is pretty straightforward,\u201d O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not complaining,\u201d O\u2019Connor said at Saturday\u2019s start. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to do straightforward racing after what was the roughest July. It just sucked that whole Tour de France. It was a constant fight, day in and day out, so it\u2019s nice to have a calmer run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defending Ayuso: \u2018Why not rack up stages?\u2019
\n\"BenO\u2019Connor is hanging close on GC and hopes to shine in the harder climbs. (Photo: MARCO BERTORELLO\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor\u2019s been watching with interest the tactical slugfest so far between Visma and UAE Emirates-XRG.<\/p>\n

UAE\u2019s Juan Ayuso has been catching heat after giving up on GC without much of a fight, only to counter the next day to win Friday\u2019s stage.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor suggested there might be a method to the madness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s smart. I think it\u2019s almost a good idea. Someone like Ayuso, he\u2019s clearly been able to do GC in the past, and he either can\u2019t be bothered to do it here, or doesn\u2019t think he can race up to his standards,\u201d O\u2019Connor said Saturday. \u201cSo why not go for stages and rack them up?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re still a quality bike rider, and you\u2019re going to be able to get a good day out, it just doesn\u2019t mean you need to do GC day in, day out. So I think it\u2019s a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor will try to play off the super teams and find space to move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben O\u2019Connor pushes back at critics of Vuelta GC logjam: \u201cNo one has the right to comment on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,54263,82,62847,62848,57421,62849,62850,54267],"class_list":["post-111166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-parent_category-road","tag-sports","tag-tag-ben-oconnor","tag-tag-jayco-alula","tag-tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-tag-juan-ayuso","tag-tag-tour-de-france","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}