Returning to the Giro d'Italia for the first time since 2020, Ben O'Connor was determined to secure himself a first Grand Tour podium. Although that proved just out of reach, the Australian was left content with his 4th overall finish.
“I feel like I’m sitting where I deserve to be, to be honest," assesses the 28-year-old Australian leader of the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team honestly, having missed the final Giro d'Italia podium by just 1:37 in the end. "Fourth is fair because Daniel Martínez has been better and Geraint Thomas has been more consistent.”
Fourth is an especially good result after O'Connor looked in difficulty on the final ascent of the Monte Grappa on stage 20 as the attacks began within the Maglia Rosa group. “We started in a storm, with some terrible rain and then pretty much had two one-hour time trials up the Monte Grappa. The second time was really hard for me and Valentin Paret-Peintre really, really helped me a lot," he recalled post-stage to his team's social media pages.
“We managed to come back to the guys in the top five in the GC at the end. I even made a little attack and Valentin even made a good sprint and got second on the stage as well," he recalls with a smile. "It’s a great way to wrap up the Giro and now we can celebrate in Rome.”
All in all it's been a very successful Grand Tour the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team. Having already started the year in excellent form with numerous wins, the team added two Giro d'Italia stage wins through the aforementioned Valentin Paret-Peintre and Andrea Vendrame, plus O'Connor's top-4 finish. “To win the teams classification, take fourth overall in GC and two stage wins means that we can be happy with our results,” O’Connor concludes.
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