He who puts in the hardest yards, reaps the biggest rewards, goes the mantra. But sport, especially cycling, isn’t as linear as that: the hardest worker, the one who sacrifices more than anyone else, might be undone by illnesses, crashes and whatever other bad luck conspires against them. And the best legs don’t always win: clever tactics, brave riding and a dose of good fortune can work in the favour of lesser-talented riders.
The 2024 version of Ben O’Connor is proof of that. Second in the Vuelta a España and World Championships and fourth at the Giro d’Italia, the Australian had his finest season yet, a year when the stars aligned more than they didn’t. “You can’t correlate it,” the 29-year-old says of performances and results. “Results are fickle. You can always do your best things and have it not work out. It [good results] can be about intelligence, being smart. Look at the Worlds: I wasn’t the second-strongest guy in the race, but I was smart and I came away with a silver medal. That’s just cycling.” He’s not going to pretend that he’s in the same conversation as the likes of Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard. “No, that’s out of reach, they’re too good,” he continues. “You can be close [to them] for sure on certain days but I’m not that physically talented.”
That said, O’Connor didn’t have the season he did through luck. Far from it. He is now definitely in the picture when it comes to discussing potential and probable podium finishers in one-week and three-week stage racing. This year, his last of four years with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale before moving to Jayco Alula, “was a dream year. Something where you put together your best self every single race pretty much, and that was a proud thing,” he says. “I look back at it with a smile. It was kind of fantastic.”
At the start of the season, O’Connor reiterated that his dream was to finish in the top-three of a Grand Tour. He almost achieved that at the Giro, and then did at the Vuelta, after unexpectedly leading the race for 13 stages following a barnstorming and ballsy win in the first week. There are no regrets that Primož Roglič pipped him to the win, only pride at what he accomplished. “I think if you have a leader’s jersey in any WorldTour race – Catalunya, Basque, Paris-Nice – you would keep that cherished jersey with you; it’s a moment, a cherished thing,” he says. “And then Grand Tours on top of that, I…