"A bit sh*tty to have the rain" - Ben O'Connor plagued by bad weather on opening time-trial of Tirreno-Adriatico 2024

After missing out on overall victory at the recent UAE Tour by just 2 seconds, Ben O'Connor has made a solid if unspectacular start to his Tirreno-Adriatico in the individual time-trial, finishing 30 seconds down.

Due to the weather conditions, many of the big-name riders started early in the day, O'Connor among them although it wasn't a tactic that really worked. "People were saying it was going to rain at 3 o'clock, others said 1 but yeah, a bit shitty to have the rain for the corners," he laments post-stage to Eurosport. "I felt pretty good actually but I lost a lot of time in the corners."

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With his time of 11:54, O'Connor was relatively far from competing for the stage win but with more stages still to come, the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale leader isn't without hope for the general classification, 30 seconds down on stage winner Juan Ayuso.

"I don't just want to follow the best guys. I should be one of them myself he says determinedly. "I'm pretty confident but races play out how they do so I'll just do my best."

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