Ben O’Connor knows he must play with fire at the Tour de France.
The 29-year-old will make Australian cycling history when the Tour starts on Saturday night (AEST) at Lille in north-east France.
For the first time since Jayco AlUla was formed in 2012, the only Australian team to contest the Tour will feature an Australian overall contender.
O’Connor has finished in the top four at the three-week Grand Tours — the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana.
He is the top Australian general classification (GC) hope at this year’s Tour de France.
His wealth of experience and results give O’Connor confidence that he can achieve another big result at the sport’s most famous race.
Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, the defending champion, and Dane Jonas Vingegaard have won the past five Tours between them.
The consensus is that this year’s title will be another duel between them.
But whatever happens, O’Connor will not die wondering.
“It’s so often the case … you do have to be astute and there are many chances,” he said.
“You play a little bit with fire and you also have to gamble, but that risk has paid off on occasion for me.
“It has to be weighted, so you’re well aware you’re not absolutely blowing your chance, you know?”
A good case in point was O’Connor’s best result at the Tour — fourth overall in 2021.
O’Connor thought he had suffered a broken shoulder when he was caught in a crash on day one.
He then won stage nine at Tignes to dramatically transform his fortunes.
“I don’t necessarily need to put a number on where I’m going to finish, because the story writes itself by the end,” he said of his Tour goal this year.
“But I have my historical results. You know what’s been capable. You know where I can place myself, more or less.
Ben O’Connor won stage nine of the Tour de France into Tignes in 2021. (Reuters: Benoit Tessier)
“It doesn’t mean I’m going to be second at the Tour because I’ve been second at La Vuelta [last year], but it’s where you expect yourself to be one of the better guys in the race — and then be involved.
“I would love to be, at least, aggressive at one point in the race. There’s nothing better than being in the biggest race in the world and having that chance to win another stage.”
O’Connor joined Jayco AlUla this year and is aware of the significance of the team having a local GC contender for the first time.
When Cadel Evans won in 2011 and Richie Porte was third in 2020, they were in European-based teams.
“It is a big moment for Jayco AlUla, having an Australian GC guy. But in the end, I just have to go about my business as I normally would,” he said.
“But — it would be great if it went well. It would be great for Australian cycling as well. It would be cool actually, if I was a kid, looking up like it was with Cadel and Richie.
“If they were part of GreenEDGE [the Australian team’s original name] at the time, that would have been even more iconic.”
Jayco AlUla will also have Dutch sprinter Dylan Gronewegen going for wins at the flat stages.
Australian Michael Matthews would have been the team’s opportunist in the first few days of the Tour, but he was forced out of racing last month because of a pulmonary embolism.
“That’s very poor timing … it’s such bad luck,” O’Connor said of Matthews.
“The thing that makes it sting is the first nine days in particular are full of chances for Michael.
“That’s where it hurts, but what can you do? In the end, it’s his health.”
AAP
