Eyes on the Giro d’Italia podium for Ben O’Connor: ‘It is a race that really suits me’

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale target a Grand Tour podium through the Australian, who has plenty of memories, good and bad, from Italy

05:25, Tuesday 30th April 2024

George Poole

Junior Writer

Ben O'Connor is perhaps the third-favourite to win the Giro d'Italia behind Tadej Pogačar and Geraint Thomas

Ben O’Connor has had to wait for his moment to return to the Giro d’Italia. The 28-year-old is the leading man for one of France's biggest cycling teams, so in previous years, the team have saved his stock for the biggest race of the year, the Tour de France.

Four years on from his move to Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, however, the time has come for O’Connor to target the Giro for the first time since joining the team. With his progression as a general classification rider over the past few seasons, the Australian can be confident of challenging for a spot on the final podium in Rome.

“I would love to do that,” he told GCN earlier in the year. “That would be, as a personal ambition, something to look towards because it’s something that I think is attainable. I think it is within my capabilities. You just need to keep that consistency up, that’s the main aim of the game in the end: not making errors and staying consistent.”

Unforced errors are perhaps the most frustrating way for a cyclist to give up their ambitions and at the Giro d’Italia, it is a feeling that O’Connor knows all too well. He was looking assured of a top-10 finish on debut in 2018 before a late crash ruled him out of the race with a broken collarbone.

“I really regret crashing out in 2018 because that was another top 10 in a Grand Tour that I fully fucked up and that was really there to take. So I kind of still live with that hint of regret, where I think I need to do another Giro and do a proper GC there.”

It is memories, good and bad, that so easily come to mind when O’Connor discusses the Giro d’Italia, a race he has much affection for. Speaking to GCN at the UAE Tour earlier in the season, O’Connor was already full of enthusiasm for the Giro in May, well aware that the early-season stage races were all building to his big target of the year. There, he will enjoy the full support of his team as he looks to go even bigger than his fourth-place finish at the Tour de France in 2021.

“I think it’s more of a heartfelt decision rather than me having to do the Tour because it’s the biggest race of the year. It’s nice not only for me, but it is also something that the team agreed to and they’re 100% behind me. I have really appreciated that as well.”

Why now for O’Connor and the Giro?

During his first season with what was then AG2R Citroën, O’Connor delivered the best performance of his fledgling career at the 2021 Tour de France. The Australian was making his debut at the biggest race of the season and thanks to an emphatic victory from the breakaway on stage 9 – where he crossed the line over five minutes ahead of the next rider – found himself pole-vaulted up to second overall.

By that point, the race for the overall victory had already been decided by a trademark Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) exhibition the previous day, but O’Connor rode consistently over the final 12 days to end the Tour in fourth position.

Each year since, O’Connor returned to the Tour in search of the podium but luck has averted him. A nasty crash at the 2022 Tour saw him leave with his head bowed, whilst sickness at last year’s race ruled him out of contention and reduced him to stage hunting – third place on stage 19 was as close as he would come.

O'Connor will be Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale's designated leader at the Giro

But with the rise of Felix Gall within the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale ranks, the opportunity opened up for O’Connor to shape his own ambitions for the 2024 season and it is a chance that the 28-year-old has grasped with open arms. Gone was the Tour de France for the first time since he joined the team and in was the Giro d’Italia.

“It was both of our decisions,” he explained. “I have wanted to do the Giro again for quite a while and obviously being on our team, it is obligatory for me to do the Tour. But it’s been nice to have an opening and spread a bit more of that chance, because Felix has really improved as a rider himself. He can get that chance in the Tour and I can get my personal chance at the Giro.

“It is somewhere I have always believed I can perform well in, it is a race that really suits me well.”

A race with mixed memories but a lot of affection

Between making his Grand Tour debut at the 2018 Giro d’Italia and taking his first Grand Tour stage victory three years later, O’Connor rode all three editions of the race and experienced a rollercoaster of emotions along the way. It remains a race that the Australian has not yet fully mastered.

At just 22 years of age, O’Connor entered the final few days of the 2018 Giro d’Italia in 12th place overall and set to capitalise on the best form of his career. Such was his confidence that on stage 19, he made the decision to try and bridge across to the leading riders – Tom Dumoulin and Richard Carapaz among them – on the descent of Sestriere. It was a decision that proved fatal to his ambitions.

Almost assured of finishing the day in eighth or ninth overall given the situation on the road, O’Connor pushed his luck too far and crashed out with a broken collarbone.

As Chris Froome turned the 2018 Giro on its head on stage 19, O'Connor fought too hard to stay in touch with the best of the rest

The Australian was keen to rectify the record a year later, but the 2019 Giro d’Italia brought with it yet more bad memories.

“In 2019 I did it and it was horrible, it was probably one of the worst races I’ve ever done personally,” he recalled. “I was so bad, I was just terrible every single day. Every single day I was in the gruppetto, every single day I couldn’t make the breakaway, it was pretty depressing.”

O’Connor might have been getting tired of Italy, then, when he began the 2020 Giro d’Italia and the future of NTT Pro Cycling was looking ever more unlikely by the day. Although Qhubeka would ultimately save the team at the last minute, O’Connor’s performances in the breakaway over stages 16 and 17 would prove instrumental to signing a contract with AG2R before the Giro had even finished.

“2020 was also interesting. We started out, I got sick and then we were working for Pozzovivo, we had some interesting days and he was actually looking really good.

“In the last week, it kind of all clicked finally and I actually had a really enjoyable last week of that 2020 Giro.”

After finishing second on stage 16 to Jan Tratnik, O’Connor would allow no such upset the following day. Part of the break once more, O’Connor attacked alone to the summit finish at Madonna di Campiglio and only one rider was able to cross the line within a minute of his stage-winning heroics.

Reflecting four years on from his last appearance at the Giro, it was clear to see that time had healed old wounds for O’Connor and that the Australian was relishing the opportunity to race in Italy again.

“I like it, the Giro has got something else about it, maybe it’s just being in Italy, it makes me chuckle. No matter what it is, I think when you go there on holidays as well, you have this kind of laughter watching Italians half of the time, people watching is good fun, it’s just such a different culture than what we grew up with,” he said with affection. “It’s so far detached from our normal life so it can be a good time.”

A first Grand Tour podium a real possibility

Three years on from his fourth place at the Tour de France, O’Connor can return to Italy confident he can notch up his fourth career top 10 in a Grand Tour. The 28-year-old has recently raced Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of the Alps, placing fifth in the former and runner-up in the latter.

A stage winner four years ago, could O'Connor repeat the feat this time around?

With his ambitions firmly set on the overall podium at the Giro d’Italia, the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale leader knows that such a finish is well within his wheelhouse.

“Physically, I think it’s there, it just comes down to all the other tickets. You know how difficult it can be, you can look at Primož at the Tour. He has tried multiple times and it just hasn’t worked out yet there for him, whilst it’s worked out for Pogačar and Jonas [Vingegaard]. It can be a fickle business sometimes. Grand Tours always expose you and your weaknesses, so if you can just minimise that, that’s your ticket in.”

Riding at his most consistent level in years, O’Connor is on the right path to punch his ticket for the top three. Bad memories from 2018 and 2019 won’t stop him, this is an opportunity that O’Connor is desperate not to let pass by unfulfilled.

“I’m keen to go back, I’ll get my own opportunity and I have made a clear decision over wanting to do it.”

For everything you need to know about the 2024 Giro d'Italia, from the history of the race to this year's route and start list, be sure to check out our dedicated race hub.