After the rest day, O’Connor still has an advantage of almost 4 minutes over his closest rival, Primoz Roglic, and he’s looking good. Roglic apparently hasn’t felt as strong, and hasn’t struck on the typical climbs we would expect him to use to put time into O’Connor and other rivals. Joao Almeida is out of the race with COVID, and Adam Yates is now UAE’s top GC man, ~ 5:30 back from O’Connor. Sepp Kuss does not seem to be in top form and will probably not defend his red jersey. Richard Carapaz, Enric Mas, and Mikel Landa are ~30 seconds away from Roglic after the first rest day.
I dunno. That’s 4 guys left in touching distance who can drop BOC for fun. Circling like sharks. I’m getting Simon Yates 2018 giro vibes, but will be delighted if I’m wrong. Great race either way.
True, and there is a LOT of climbing left. It will probably come down to how Roglic feels, and whether Adam Yates can go nuclear like he did in Grenada. But BOC is climbing really well, he’s clearly in good form, and his competition is not nearly as strong as expected.
If by competition you mean roglic, and almeida I guess. Oh kuss (I never took him seriously as a contender anyway). Every one else seems to be on the boil.