Three weeks is a long time to stare at the writing on the wall. All year Ben O’Connor’s entire existence had revolved around the Tour de France but now, on the very opening weekend of the race, he knew his podium challenge was already floundering.
After dropping clumps of seconds in Bilbao and San Sebastián, O’Connor could guess what the remainder of his Tour had in store. That sinking feeling was borne out by the losses he incurred during the race’s week one foray into the Pyrenees. Each time he climbed aboard the AG2R Citroën bus after those early setbacks, he was already fast-tracking his way through the grieving process.
Last year, O’Connor’s Tour challenge was ruined by a crash on stage 2 in Denmark, but he persisted in fighting a losing battle against his injuries for more than a week before eventually, belatedly pulling out. This time out, he skipped denial and went straight to anger.
“Initially, I was really angry the first couple of times it happened – just not good enough,” O’Connor tells Cyclingnews. “Then eventually you get used to it, but you’re still short of temper, I would say. I think the boys knew that and they were good with me. Then eventually I got used to it, more or less. But there’s still always a little flicker of a flame that wasn’t able to be quenched.”
In 2022, AG2R management had looked to cajole O’Connor through his ordeal, but, as the Netflix camera demonstrated, Julien Jurdie’s well-intentioned urging had probably served only to exacerbate the rider’s own sense of frustration. Mercifully, the Australian was afforded a little more privacy for the mourning period last July, even if this latest Tour setback was altogether more disappointing.
“2022 was very different because I was injured, so I kind of had to write that off. I should have just abandoned earlier. That would have made me feel better about the whole thing,” O’Connor says. “2023 was just disappointing because I didn’t achieve what I wanted to. From a GC point of view, I wasn’t even close. I felt off at the race. I was a bit sick, and it took a long time for that to clear after the Tour de France. Something just wasn’t right.”
And yet, as O’Connor’s time losses mounted up during the opening week, a curious thing happened: he found himself beginning to enjoy the Tour. Yes, the race itself continued to vex him, but as the podium slid further and further out of…
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