Ben O’Connor was disappointed with third place on stage 10 of the Tour de France but his “hand on heart racing” in intense heat on Tuesday signalled a promising return to form.
The AG2R Citroën rider entered the Tour with title ambitions but abandoned those after a slow start in the Basque Country, which the Australian couldn’t explain, having finished third at the Critérium du Dauphiné behind defending Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) last month.
The 27-year-old is a subject of Netflix’s Tour series and film crews at the race seem to be recording his every move, right down to roadside conversations with his partner.
Speaking before stage 6 in the Pyrenees last week, he’d drastically reassessed his outlook on the Tour, where he finished fourth on his debut in 2021 after celebrating a solo stage victory in Tignes.
“Hold on. That’s going to be the rest of my race here at the Tour until I feel really good again. You can’t do anything until you’re at your very best,” O’Connor had said.
“I’m not good enough to win this race and I lost already some time, so I just have to take it day by day and if the chance comes maybe, but I’m not dancing away from Jonas [Vingegaard] any time soon.”
O’Connor took his chance when racing resumed after the first rest day on Monday, going on the attack as the mercury pushed almost 40 degrees Celsius – starkly different to the wintry conditions he endured to triumph in Tignes two years ago.
The climber from Perth was part of an elite breakaway that contested line honours in Issoire after an unrelenting day in the saddle, with five categorised climbs along the undulating 167.2km route allowing for little respite.
“It was not so much revenge, it was just racing. It's just pure, hand on heart racing, it was really a special day,” O’Connor said post-race on Monday.
“I was dropped at the start too; I think I was probably last man over the first climb. It really touched all parts of cycling, and the suffering parts of cycling. With the heat too, a little bit of wind on top of the plateau, you really had it all today.”
O’Connor was the first to attack 1.6km from the finish line, but Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) and Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) bridged to him, before the latter accelerated, with Bilbao following.
O’Connor surged again inside the final 800 metres to rejoin the two leaders but the victory went to Bilbao, who is racing with a “special motivation” of honouring his late teammate Gino Mäder.
“It was a cool stage, I'm a bit sad I lost though,” O’Connor said. “It's a lot of effort you put in, not to win. I really wanted to have another Tour de France victory, so I'm a little disappointed to be honest.
“… I think that I have the ability to win a stage. I missed my chance today sadly.”
