Ben O'Connor "definitely not done" with Tour de France

Ben O'Connor rode to a breakthrough fourth place at the 2021 Tour de France, but this season he failed to give that result a continuation as he crashed and suffered injuries in the opening days which caused him to abandon.

"I am on a French team, and I think that I had a really perfect build-up this year but it just didn't work out well," O'Connor said in an interview with Cyclingnews. "So, I'm definitely not done with it. I really want to keep on smashing it and trying to relive what happened last year at the Tour and see if I can finish again in the top five."

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The Australian had a strong start to the season, and at the Critérium du Dauphiné he rode to third place only behind Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard, with Jumbo-Visma dominating the race in a similar way that they would later in July. O'Connor couldn't take part in the battle, and then rode into 8th place at the Vuelta a Espana later in the year.

"That's where I believe I'm sitting at now, but whether you can actually do it is very different. I'll set out with that aim and if you can't do it, you can't do it. At the Vuelta I was eighth and I deserved to finish eighth because I wasn't good enough," he continued. In 2023 he will likely return to the Tour in search of success.

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"It's a great route," he comments, highly favouring the climbers, with virtually no time-trialing kilometers. "I think actually in a way it's sad that there's not enough time trialing because I do actually like the discipline. The time trial is bloody hard. It must be around 600 metres of climbing. It's really, really hard." As has been the case with the French team for many years, it's likely placing it's best cards in the Grand Boucle in search of success.

"I think the race is really cool. It actually reminds me of maybe a route the Giro would do. Less traditional as in you don't have these stages through the north or through the area south of Paris where it can be real easy. It's not like that at all. I like the way it looks, though, with the big mountains. It's more or less like a big Dauphine almost in a way," O'Connor added.

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"Obviously for me, I love that big mountain day, so the Col de la Loze, to Courchevel, will be really cool. That's probably the one I'd really love to do well in. Also, the stage to Bettex (stage 15, ed.) maybe isn't perfect for me but that could be a really good one to be aggressive on."

"And then the stage to Morzine as well – I remember the climb from the Dauphine when I felt really good, and you descend down so that always changes the game and it opens up to go for the launch," he continued. He's had the support of Bob Jungels, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Mikaël Cherel and Geoffrey Bouchard planned for the mountains and should expect a similar block for 2023.

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"I think it's a group of like mates and boys and I think we've just got a few neo-pros coming in actually. Change isn't always better," he said of the French team who has only signed three young French riders into 2023, and keep their squad virtually in the same form.

"I think we can actually work better as a team and as our group to improve, to gel and then be even more clear with how each of us go about our roles within a race. Look at who we have now – we still have Greg [Van Avermaet], Benoît [Cosnefroy], Ollie [Naesen], Aurelien [Paret-Peintre]… I mean, these are some really good riders," the Australian added.

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"I think that we're all where we should be in a race and there's no reason why we shouldn't perform. I'm here to 2024 and I'm enjoying it. I'm just ready to start next year now," he concluded.