06:00, June 29, 2022
Who was the highest ranked rider of a French formation in the 2021 Tour? The answer would not be self-evident if his name were not written in the subtitle of this article. Because Ben O’Connor, fourth for his first participation, had left the radar as quickly as he had appeared there. Except for Vincent Lavenu, the only one to put a coin on this high-perched Australian climber (1.88 meters). At the Tour of Italy 2020, postponed to October, the manager of AG2R Citroën extends a one-year contract to the one he imagines slipping into the shorts of Romain Bardet, leaving for DSM. Moment of madness ? A few days later, O’Connor pocketed the Madonna di Campiglio stage, over 1,500 meters away. Career revived in extremis: NTT, the sponsor of his team, was about to close down. “I would have been sad if everything had stopped, considers the ex-future unemployed, because there was still potential. »
The following summer, Tignes reveals it to the followers of the Grande Boucle: beyond 2,000 meters this time, the Australian leaves his first pursuer at five minutes. Memories : “In the evening, I was in such a good mood that I couldn’t stop talking to everyone, journalists or mechanics. » His friends call him from Australia in the middle of the night, in tears. Dinner will be late and very festive. O’Connor hovers, Lavenu brings him back to earth: “The work is not finished; think of the general now,” he told her. In Paris, the unknown only finished three minutes from the podium. Nobody (else) saw it coming.
He starts cycling after his majority
Insightful, the Savoyard leader pushes the offensive nature of his protege. “Riding on instinct is really fun”, savors the interested party. This year, he “a little calmer” but did not stop winning: a stage in Catalonia, then the final classification of the Tour du Jura. A fortnight ago, he rose to third place in the Dauphiné, general rehearsal of the Tour. Suffice to say that it will be monitored from Friday, in Copenhagen (Denmark). From the height of his 26 years, he does not make a mountain of it: “Before, I wondered if I was good, or capable of winning. Now that I know that, it takes the stress off me. »
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Before, I wondered if I was good. Now that I know, it takes the stress off me
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His compatriot Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), winner of the Giro last month, shares his relaxation. Australia’s first grand tour winner since Cadel Evans’ yellow jersey in 2011. “At the time, I spent my time playing football or cricket”, O’Connor would almost apologize. In Perth, where he was born, he practiced a dozen sports before trying cycling, already of age. In three years, he went from a local team to the World Tour at Dimension Data (2017-2020). In the South African team as at AG2R Citroën, which extended his contract until 2024, he says he has drawn “the jackpot”. It’s his way of talking about the people who trusted him.
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To hear him tell his beautiful story, a sound laugh punctuating each answer, it is difficult to imagine the distress felt during his first Vuelta, in 2019. One evening, on a Spanish beach, he questions everything. “My fiancée had left her job in Australia to follow me,” he says. But I was doing shit and his sacrifice no longer made sense. Unhappy, he seriously considered giving up. Salvation goes through France, already: a victory at the Étoile de Bessèges, in February 2020, puts him back in the saddle. Depression has not said its name.
Difficult beginnings in Europe
In a Chinese portrait published on his team’s website, when asked “If you were a movie”, the Australian replied: “A film whose title and trailer would be exciting but which would turn out to be a flop. » Like him ? “It took me a long time to find my place”, he weighs. His first months in Europe isolated him: at the age of 21, he settled in Lucca, an Instagrammable but unliveable Tuscan village, according to him, he is wandering. Selected in 2018 for the Giro, he fell in the third week, collarbone in pieces, as a top 10 loomed. Depressed. During this period, he returned only once to the country; too far away at first, then cut off from the world by the emergence of Covid-19. ” It’s better today “, he smiles. Reading lifted his spirits: James Joyce (Dublin people) or HG Wells (The Island of Doctor Moreau), the stories of Orwell or the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Nevertheless, this good student prefers life in the open air. Last summer, the 3,400 kilometers of the Tour devoured, he got on his bike with his friend Tristan, vlog author and amateur cyclist. Perpignan, Font-Romeu, Girona, “training and tourism”. Wine, too, he who imagined himself a winegrower. In Collioure and Banyuls-sur-Mer, he discovered “very interesting names”. Took the time to observe nature to understand the influence of soils and climate on grape varieties. At the end of a long day of riding, he just as much appreciates “ice cold beer” than a glass of champagne. At the rate of his victories, it is indeed a good habit to take.
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