'I'd always like to do better' - Ben O'Connor and the fine art of building for the Giro

Ben O’Connor has been in this game long enough to know that the Tour of the Alps is a race of trial and error ahead of the main event next month. Coughing up 25 seconds to his fellow GC contenders on the summit finish at Val Martello on Tuesday was a frustration, of course, but it scarcely classes as a setback on his road towards the Giro d’Italia.

“It was just really hard at the bottom, and I just paced it poorly, to be honest,” O’Connor told Domestique in Laces on Wednesday. “I didn’t need to follow as long as I did, because everyone was pretty blown already by halfway. It was just stupid riding on my behalf, to be honest. I didn’t deserve to finish where I did, but at the same time I did, because I was stupid enough to follow so long.”

Val Martello will be forever redolent of Nairo Quintana’s snow and polemica-sprinkled victory on the 2014 Giro d’Italia, but on that occasion the climb was preceded by the Gavia and the Stelvio. On Tuesday, it came after a rather gentler day of racing, and it would be hasty to extrapolate too much about the Giro from the short, sharp effort required in the finale.

“Yesterday was quite easy until the final climb. Then it was pretty much three minutes full, and you sit at pretty much threshold the rest of the way,” O’Connor said. “It was a bit of an annoying one, but I just wiped off my face and started looking to the rest of the week.”

O’Connor placed safely in the front group on stage 3 to Arco, where Tom Pidcock claimed victory, and the Jayco-AlUla rider now faces into more attritional fare on the final two stages, which double as his last two race days before the Giro. Currently 12th overall, 33 seconds behind green jersey Giulio Pellizzari, O’Connor will expect to move up the standings between now and Bolzano, but the true object of the exercise is to build up a head of steam ahead of the corsa rosa.

“I’m really excited for the next couple of days to see actually whereabouts I’m lying,” said O’Connor. “Because if it’s a step up from Catalunya, then you’re still on that forward foot, and that means you’re going to be nice and ready for May. As long as you don’t feel like you've overdone yourself by the time you get to the Giro, that’s the main thing.”

O’Connor finished just short of the podium on his last Giro appearance two years ago, placing fourth overall in Rome. On that occasion, his build-up to May had seen him place second overall at both the UAE Tour and the Tour of the Alps. This time out, his results have been more modest to this point – 10th at the Tour Down Under, 42nd at the UAE Tour and 13th at the Volta a Catalunya – but no two approaches are ever the same. 

Every season has its own story, and this time out, O’Connor opted to start his season earlier than usual, at the Tour Down Under. That decision didn’t quite pay off, and it has since led to a recalibration of his training.

“I think the initial approach into Down Under was more intense and that’s kind of why I suffered a little bit, from the kickback to that,” O’Connor said. “The planning has since been a bit more similar to 2024, and we’ve reverted a bit more to that kind of way of training, and I feel like I’m in a good spot.

“I mean, I always would like to do better. Even in 2024, I wish I’d won UAE and I wish I’d won Tour of the Alps, so you're always searching for the next best thing.”

O’Connor’s three-week pedigree certainly isn’t under any debate, with a resumé that includes second overall at the 2024 Vuelta a España and fourth at his break-out Tour de France five years ago.

“The main aim right now is to make sure I actually feel good after kind of blowing a little bit and having a bit of a reset,” he said. “The main aim is to make sure I’m good for the Grand Tour, which is where my best results have come in my career so far.”