Having crashed on stage 1, and not a specialist in the discipline at the best of times, Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) may have expected to lose more time in the Tour de France’s stage 5 time trial, but came away with relatively limited losses on Wednesday afternoon.
The Australian finished 21st on the stage, 1:47 down on winner Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) but less than 30 seconds behind the likes of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
He bettered GC riders like Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL) and Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), and moved up 12 places on GC to 17th. It was also a good day for O’Connor’s Jayco-AlUla teammate Luke Plapp, who finished ninth after going fastest in the first part of the course and just fading towards the end.
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After some windy, punchy stages, and the first day’s crash, O’Connor seemed to be improving physically and race-wise, and looked ahead to the climbs that suit him well.
“I seem to have come out of it a little bit better,” he said after the time trial. “I guess you manage your own efforts, so it’s slightly different to the chaos that was yesterday, when you get caught behind a crash and it’s a knock-on effect and you can’t get back up to the front. So I guess this is probably a good one for your confidence, because you can ride to your strengths.”
The last few days have certainly not seen O’Connor utilise his strengths, dropping early on the punchy finale to stage 4 and shipping more time, but he’s clawed some back on stage 5 and will hope that trend can continue.
“First four days were pretty horrible. Day one was good, actually. I don’t really mind the wind, just, as you know, I had some pretty back luck getting caught up. The last couple of punchy days were pretty rough, it wasn’t fun racing, it was dangerous for everyone,” he said.
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“So I’ll be glad to get that behind me, and once we get towards Clermont Ferrand and the Pyrénées, my life should normally be a little bit happier.”
Winner of a mountain stage in the Tour in 2021, and with two top-four Grand Tour finishes in the last 18 months, the 29-year-old has a good reason to believe he will have a better time when the altitude gets higher.
Though he may have come to this race with a focus on GC, and sole leadership with Jayco-AlUla, O’Connor seemed to have slightly shifted his expectations after early time loss, though that’s not to say he couldn’t move up the overall.
“You have to pick your days, but to be honest I actually have no idea which ones will be days where you can try something, because the way Visma and UAE are riding, it’s a ‘who’s the strongest?’ contest,” he said.
Whether a rider like O’Connor is able to break through the tight grip the super teams have on this race or not, the memory and possibility of winning was a constant incentive even when things weren’t going to plan.
“When you win here, it changes everything, as simple as that,” the Australian said when asked what keeps him motivated through the hard days. “That win. Success here is bigger than success elsewhere.
“I’ve had some pretty great times, obviously I’ve won here before, but I wouldn’t mind doing it again and feeling that joy.”
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