'This one hurt a lot' - Ben O'Connor on the up after Giro time trial

‘Grande Ben, grande Ben!’ A pair of tifosi standing by the barrier on Massa’s Via San Leonardo were immediately sold on the merits of Ben O’Connor’s performance in the stage 10 time trial of the Giro d’Italia, but the man himself needed a little convincing after he crossed the line.

As O’Connor draped himself over his handlebars and tried to catch his breath after his 11th-place finish, Jayco-AlUla press officer Geoffrey Pizzorni held a phone screen displaying the stage’s live timing in front of him.

Men like Jonas Vingegaard had yet to finish, but the data already confirmed O’Connor’s sensations from out on the 42km course. He was faring well against his GC rivals, and he would finish the day by climbing three places in the overall standings to fifth. 

“It was good, it was a good ride,” O’Connor told reporters. “I felt much better. I was a bit under the weather on stage 9, and thankfully the rest day was there. Now it’s back to normal, so I’m happy with that ride.

“It was smooth. I was fading in the final couple of kilometres, though, I probably didn’t need to go out as hard, but I did a pretty good ride in the end.”

The performance will come as a particular satisfaction to O’Connor given the sheer amount of time dedicated to preparing this specific stage since the depths of last winter. This was only the third time trial of O’Connor’s season, but the discipline is always uppermost in the thoughts of a man aiming at the final podium in Rome. 

“If you’re on GC, that’s your job,” he said. “I spend a lot of time on the TT bike, so it kind of kills you when you have a bad ride. You can see how much of a difference it makes against other guys, and there are bigger time differences than at Blockhaus, so I guess that’s why we invest in it and do our best.”

In the 2020s, Grand Tour organisers have tended to scale back their time trialling miles, which made this lengthy test something of a throwback. It was hard to shake the sense that RCS Sport had designed this stage in the hope of attracting time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel to their race.

O’Connor, however, had no complaints. The day brought him back to his first, youthful tilts at bike racing, when he lined up in events in the hinterland of Perth under the auspices of the Australian Time Trial Association.

“I mean, it suits me, so I’m not complaining,” O’Connor said. “I don’t mind it. It reminds me of time trials that I grew up with back at home with ATTA. The 40k time trials down there, Chidlow and Mundaring in Perth countryside. So yeah, it’s my bread and butter, I guess.

“That was my kind of initiation into road cycling, doing time trials there with clip-on bars, so it was a bit reminiscent of it. But yeah, this one hurt. This one hurt a lot…”

Another glance at the overall standings will ease the pain a little. O’Connor is now 2:48 off pink jersey Afonos Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious), while his deficit on Vingegaard is down to 2:21 after he snatched a handful of seconds back from the Dane here. 

“I think I’ve built into this Giro well,” O’Connor said as he soft-pedalled away from the finish area. “I think I’ve got the timing right for my form.”