"Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard are just too good" - Ben O'Connor knows he cannot directly challenge the best GC riders in the world
Cycling
Ben O'Connor was perhaps not the name many expected to break out past season, but the Australian climber did so with glamor, finishing runner-up at both World Championships and Vuelta a Espana. Despite the successful year in Decathlon jersey, O'Connor returns home to Jayco AlUla for 2025 campaign - which he hopes goes even better with Tour de France as the main objective.
The GC contender can look back on last year with pride, and he does so completely. "I look back on it with a smile," O'Connor said of last season at Wieler Revue. "Very few things went wrong and I was the best version of myself in almost all the races. Wearing the red jersey in the Vuelta was something very big for me, it was an honour to be the leader."
The 29-year-old O'Connor climbed into the top-5 of UCI rankings this year, but hopes to do even a step better in 2025: "Your level does not always correlate with your performance."
O'Connor gives the example of the World Championships in Zurich. "I was smart that day, because I was certainly not the second best rider in the race. And yet I still ended up taking the silver medal. That's cycling. On the other hand, I was sick in the final week of the Giro d'Italia. I could have finished on the podium there, and I could have won the UAE Tour. That makes me realise that next year could easily be even better."
Having finished in top-5 of GC of every single stage race O'Connor attended in 2024, maybe winning a big one is that far? Well, the Australian reminds that there are still few aliens who he can only look up to: "Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard are just too good. On certain days I can come close, but I'm just not as physically talented as them. I don't plan my races based on what they do. You can do that, but for me too, the Tour de France is ultimately the pinnacle. I just want to be there. You just have to keep going, and hang out with such greats in the sport."
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- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024
- If you hold onto then, you blowup in a minute and then you finish 5 minutes down like Ben O'Connorabstractengineer21-12-2024
- Based on what argument?Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Agreed except the length of climbs, pretty sure you can stretch that to about a km unless we’re talking about half a dozen in quick succession.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Lot of contradictory information floating around world cup contenders, someone should do some tidying up.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- A bit much to suggest that Pogacar is better than MvdP on most terrains. The only terrain Pogacar is clearly better is long climbs, on any other terrain they are pretty even except flat cobbles and short and steep climbs (max a few 100 mtrs) where MvdP is clearly better than Pogacar.Velovibes21-12-2024
- The likelihood of RE improving enough at this point to outclass TP or JV is less than zero.verve82521-12-2024
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024