"When you sail too close to the sun, you get stung" - Ben O’Connor describes his decision to follow Tadej Pogacar as naive

Ben O’Connor had enough time to re-think his decisions as he descended from the summit of Oropa to the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team bus after stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia, but it was not enough to calm his frustration. Mainly with himself.

"When you sail too close to the sun, you get stung," he told GCN about Tadej Pogacar. "I was brave. I always wanted to try and follow Pog, but I was probably the dumbest guy in the race."

"I followed for too long, then I just exploded. It’s a shame because I definitely feel like I was the second strongest guy, but probably the least intelligent."

"I felt great, so I was like why not, you’re here to race," O’Connor explained. "I never look at numbers at all in a race on a climb. If I’m solo perhaps, but when you’re attacking, you never ever look - just race on instinct. Though perhaps it would have aided me a bit if I’d looked down and seen what I was doing."

"I didn’t realise I was so far in the red until too late perhaps," O'Connor said. "Pog looked around, saw I was on his wheel and clearly wanted to be alone, so he hit it again, and I found my limit. I thought I could hold onto it. But I gambled a bit too much and made a pretty big mistake."