Ben O'Connor has defied the odds to increase his lead at the end of the first week of the Vuelta a Espana and remain in pole position to become only Australia's third cycling Grand Tour winner.
The man from Perth had looked vulnerable to losing a chunk of time to his nearest pursuer Primoz Roglic in the Sierra Nevada mountains on Sunday after squandering nearly a minute of his lead behind the victorious Slovenian in Saturday's less demanding stage.
Yet on a day when Britain's Adam Yates produced the same sort of race-altering solo win that O'Connor had delivered on stage six, the courageous Australian actually turned the tables on three-time champ Roglic in the brutally hot conditions at the end of the ninth 'queen' stage from Motril to Granada.
While Team UAE Emirates ace Yates went it alone to win the stage by 1 minute 39 seconds from Richard Carapaz, O'Connor showed huge determination to take the group sprint finish for third, 3:45 behind the winner, picking up four bonus points in the process ahead of eighth-placed Roglic.
It meant the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team leader, who's seeking to emulate Cadel Evans and Jai Hindley as Aussie Grand Tour winners, actually increased his overall advantage in the GC standings to 3:53 going into Monday's most welcome of rest days.
"Every second counts," beamed the 28-year-old O'Connor, who's Australia's top-ranked road rider.
"I didn't lose time today — to some guys, yes — but I think in the end I showed my real capacity, and what I can do. So I'm proud.
"We were all a little bit cooked but I'm super happy with how we were as a team. We were really, really composed, led from the front when we needed to, and Felix (Gall, his key domestique) was excellent on the final climb. It showed we're here to still fight."
Englishman Yates had made his extraordinary break 58 kilometres from home after being beautifully set up by the hard slog of his Australian UAE Team Emirates colleague, Jay Vine, and was rewarded for his maiden Vuelta triumph by moving to seventh in the standings, 5:30 behind O'Connor.
But the dangers are multiplying in the fight for the red jersey for O'Connor, with Ecuador's former Olympic champ Carapaz looking strong as he moved into third overall, 4:32 behind the Aussie.
"I never suffered like this before. It's so hot out there. I've had a lot of bad luck down the years in Grand Tours and really didn't know if I could make it but I'm just so happy I could finally win a Grand Tour stage," said the normally unflappable Yates, who was reduced to tears by the draining emotion of his victory.
He paid tribute to Vine, who is getting back to his best after his horror crash at the Basque Country tour in April when he suffered several broken vertebrae, including a cervical fracture and two thoracic spine vertebral body fractures.
AAP