History is currently repeating itself in the best of ways for Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) at the 2023 Critérium du Dauphiné. The Australian once again finds himself the closest pursuer of Jonas Vingegaard overall on GC, just like he did in the 2022 race.
One key difference is that whereas last year the Jumbo-Visma racer finally ran second overall, this time Vingegaard is leading, with O’Connor also moving up a spot, from third to second.
The second key difference is that the toughest three climbing stages are all yet to come, so O’Connor’s podium place is, for now, in no way definitive.
But after taking a very promising fifth in Wednesday’s time trial, which he later called 'one of my best' and then sticking in the main GC group behind Vingegaard on Thursday’s tough finale, the AG2R Citroën leader is looking very much on track for now. That’s clearly true for the Dauphiné, and very possibly for the upcoming Tour de France as well.
“It was good to get through today, it was actually really hard with the tailwind and we were always on the pedals, it was a pretty good chase and a very good fight from the break, so it was on,” O’Connor said afterwards.
“In the finale, I just managed my effort a little bit because it was full gas.”
Riding his first race since Liège-Bastogne-Liège, O’Connor had the bad luck to suffer a mechanical in the finale of stage 5 at Salins-les-Bains. He crossed the line in 24th place, behind the main group of favourites.
On the down side, the late mechanical meant he could not fight for the bonus seconds still on offer for second and third place. But the rather bigger plus was the incident had taken place inside the three-kilometres-to-go safety zone, so post-stage O’Connor was given the same 31-second gap on stage winner Vingegaard, as all the other GC riders. After that near-brush with misfortune, the Australian fights on.
“It was a shame I couldn’t sprint at the end with a mechanical, but that’s cycling, that’s how it is,” O’Connor said. “I’m just happy it happened then, not five kilometres early.”
Third in 2022 in a race with huge importance for his sponsor, which is based near the city of Grenoble where the Dauphiné finishes, O’Connor looked to be coming into excellent shape just as the biggest challenge of the year, the Tour, approaches.
“It was a pretty crazy stage with the speed,” Team Sports Director Julien Jurdie added. “Frankly, I ask myself how the riders could go so fast, though the tailwind helped of course.
“But that kind of intensity made for a crazy stage right from the gun, everybody was driving hard towards what was a tough finale in the last 20 kilometres and a climb with some really steep gradients.”
After an unexpectedly hard stage 5, O’Connor now moves onwards and upwards at the the Críterium du Dauphiné. The next challenge is stage 6’s tricky finale, including the category 2 Col des Aravis, which both kicks off a potentially-explosive last segment of the stage and also raises the curtain on the Alps for the 2023 Dauphiné.
“Tomorrow is tricky, I hope the weather stays more or less dry in the Alps, the descent after Aravis is tricky,” O’ Connor said. “We also go up a climb I remember from my Tour de France stage victory from a couple of years ago, so hopefully I’ll have some good memories.
"Like I always say, I’ll just keep doing my best and try to be up there with the top guys every day.”
