INTERVIEW: BEN O’CONNOR
Ben O’Connor was one of the standout successes of the Tour de France, finishing fourth at his first attempt. He tells Procycling how he achieved it with grit, attacking elan, and with the help of his team
The Australian tells us about his fourth place and spectacular stage win in the rain at Tignes.
Grand tour cycling and test cricket have a lot more in common than you might think, for two sports that look and operate in such completely different ways. Both have a complex narrative that ebbs and flows. There is the impact of outside factors such as the road surface, the pitch, the weather, and the time of year. These affect both cycling and cricket in a way that just does not happen with a game of football, for example. One crucial part of both cricket and cycling is the mental fortitude and patience that is needed to succeed, especially if you are a rider looking for a finish high up in the general classification, or an opening batsman trying to dig in at the start of the match in order to bat the opposition into physical and psychological submission.
Ben O’Connor has been both at points in his life. Not quite a test cricketer, but an opening batsman for his school’s first XI, and has now finished fourth at his first ever Tour de France. He enjoys both sports because they are not static, not set: they take place in the real world. Another Western Australian, Justin Langer, was one half of the most successful test opening pair of this century, alongside Matthew Hayden. They were famed in the cricketing world for their grit and determination, the same qualities that O’Connor takes pride in.
Speaking to Procycling ahead of the Tour’s final stage in Paris, the Ag2r Citröen rider says: “It is not what I thought would happen, and nobody would have thought that I could ever have finished fourth. Maybe I could do 10th, I thought, possibly, but I guess it’s a good lesson in resilience for everyone, to never give up and keep pushing. Even just in general life too.
“I remember on one of the Andorra stages, someone shouted, ‘Hold on Benno, dig deep’, which is such a classic Aussie saying. Like dig in. It was just before the top, and I managed to get back for the descent, and it motivated
me. That’s an Aussie attribute, just grit.”
O’Connor showed a great deal of grit in this year’s Tour, coming down in the first big crash on day one, the one caused by a spectator with a sign. He thought at that point that his race was over, in the mistaken belief that his shoulder was broken. However, with stitches on his arm after a collision with a chainring, he fought from 40th on general classification up into the top 10, and finished in very lofty company.
This year’s Tour was a race of resolve, but also a race of youth. Tadej Pogačcar might have won his second maillot jaune at just 22, but Jonas Vingegaard finished second at 24, and O’Connor is 25. Both of the latter riders were also racing their first edition of the Tour, and while their achievements must be qualified with the crashes that reduced the chances of some of the favourites - such as Vingegaard’s original team leader Primož Roglic, it is still remarkable.
The young Australian says: “Everyone loves an underdog. To see the less known guy coming fourth, not far from the podium, although that’s another level. I can’t see why there isn’t a chance I can get there, with the development I have taken each year. I can see the trajectory, so now I have so much hope. I can’t even think about it now, though, because I just want to finish in Paris and lap this all up.”
Not only is this a top-four finish at his first Tour, it is his best result at a WorldTour race, at the biggest cycling race in the world. His first breakout ride was at the Giro d’Italia in 2018, where it looked like he was heading for a maiden top 10 position, but crashed out on stage 19 and did not finish while riding for Dimension Data.
“I thought I should have done it a couple of years ago and I didn’t,” he explains. “Now it’s even more fulfilling to do it at the world’s biggest race. This is my best GC result in a WorldTour stage race, and I did it at the Tour de France. Normally it’s the other way round. A grand tour is a long race, and
I like the format.”
It was at last year’s October Giro that O’Connor returned to his best, finishing second on stage 16 before
“It is not what I thought would happen, and nobody would have thought that I could ever have finished fourth”
going one better on the next day, triumphing on the mountainous stage to Madonna di Campiglio.
He says: “I think the Giro stage win brought the realisation. Not just the one that I won, but the way I carried myself in that final week. I was super sick in the first week, so I knew I should have been with the GC guys, but I was sick, and it wasn’t until the last week that
I felt normal again. Racing at the front is such a different thing.”
S T O RMI NG T O A S TAG E WI N
O’Connor did not ride defensively at the Tour, or hide in plain sight like some of his fellow GC competitors, but owes his success to his attacking brio, especially on stage 9 to Tignes. The Ag2r rider was part of a breakaway of 43 that was reduced to a group of four elite riders, O’Connor, Nairo Quintana, Sergio Higuita and Michael Woods, over some of the mid-stage climbs, the Col du Pré and the Cormet de Roselend. This was in atrocious weather and, while not quite as bad as the last time the Tour visited Tignes, it affected the race.
In the valley before the final climb, the Montée de Tignes, the young Australian looked like he was struggling to hold onto the lead group, while also flirting with the race lead, such was the break’s lead over Pogacar. However, he paced his way back to the front, and on the climb to Tignes he dropped his companions. Higuita was the last to see O’Connor with 17km to go.
“That was probably my biggest day on my bike,” O’Connor says. “It was a bit outrageous with the weather and the conditions, and the way that it was actually raced as well. It was almost like it was a GC group, there was attacking all the way. I stayed strong and time trialled to the finish, just a big time trial actually.
“I was going flat out, not so much because of the GC, but I was also going because I was getting these time gaps and they were saying all sorts, and I thought that was Higuita behind me, but that was actually my time to the yellow jersey. I had no idea, I was in this zone and the kilometres were just passing, it was a fast climb. Ironically, I actually thought someone was a lot closer to me chasing, I probably wouldn’t have gone so hard and deep otherwise. I did some proper damage to myself, probably one of the reasons I was able to finish fourth.”
That ride meant O’Connor was elevated to second place on general classification, and became just the 13th Australian to win a stage at the Tour. Even more remarkably, he was the only one of that front group to finish out ahead of the favourites.
He was the only rider in the top 10 - aside from Pogacar - to win a stage at this year’s Tour. While his GC rivals, such as Wilco Kelderman and Enric Mas, silently stalked around France without causing a lot of fuss, O’Connor proved he can do more than that.
“I’ve got the ability to back it up, day after day,” he says. “I’ve managed to find that this is something that I like and works for me. It’s good to know for the future that I can also be aggressive and not have too many repercussions later. Perhaps, perhaps.”
Two Australians have finished higher in general classification, Cadel Evans and Richie Porte