With a fourth place within the Tour de France in 2021 then a fourth place within the Giro d’Italia this Might, it’s maybe not so stunning that Ben O’Connor’s high precedence for the Vuelta a España is to not repeat the identical putting. Even when it means ending additional down the general.
“I’m a bit sick of fourth, it’s sort of the worst place,” O’Connor stated as he awaited the beginning of his third Vuelta a España and tenth Grand Tour of his profession.
“You’re shut however not shut sufficient. I hope in three weeks time in Madrid I’ll have that huge smile of ending on the rostrum, feeling pleased with myself and pleased with what we’ve achieved with the workforce. Identical to we’ve got been feeling all season.”
Had been he not capable of end on the Vuelta podium, as he put it, “I’d take fifth over fourth.”
O’Connor’s first race again from the Giro this Might got here with a late call-up for the Olympics Highway Race, changing the injured Luke Plapp and ending 51st. If his Paris efficiency maybe got here too quickly in his autumn buildup, a subsequent eleventh place within the Clásica San Sebastian boded nicely for the Vuelta a España. And aside from his main GC objectives this August, O’Connor stated he’s additionally trying to spherical off his Grand Tour stage wins ‘set’ with a victory in Spain.
“I loved being at house,” the 28-year-old stated. “I wanted a break after a heavy begin to the season. I’m fairly prepared now to get into the second half.
“La Vuelta all the time has a little bit of a unique vibe. It’s gonna be a fairly enjoyable race, there are all the time questions on whether or not the break can win or not, or will the GC guys take an opportunity to win phases.”
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“Hopefully I can go for a little bit of each [breaks and GC]. A stage win can be nice after those I obtained within the Tour and the Giro.”
O’Connor final raced the Giro-Vuelta mixture in a single season again in 2019, taking thirty second and twenty fifth, respectively, and a whole lot of water has flowed below the bridge since then. Even in 2019, he did take a promising sixth on one of many hardest phases in Asturias, on the Alto de Acebo, received by Sepp Kuss as his first Grand Tour stage win.
“The wonderful thing about the Vuelta is that it has a mix of tremendous arduous summit finishes and medium mountain phases. Equally, there may be 12 or 13 GC phases, the place you will get time or lose time general. So there are many phases the place you may be opportunistic,” O’Connor identified on Thursday,
The opposite huge distinction, definitely in contrast with the Giro d’Italia of 2024, is that the climate is anticipated to be loads hotter, significantly within the south of Spain within the first week. Temperatures, already within the low to mid-30s Celsius in Lisbon, are set to rise to 37 levels on Monday and within the Spanish areas of Extremadura and Andalucia, the place the Vuelta returns on Tuesday, they aren’t prone to drop a lot decrease.
“I’ve solely ever had one unhealthy day within the warmth, again on the Ventoux in 2021. Typically, I don’t have any points there,” O’Connor stated. “All of us put together for the warmth in our personal methods, and though I received in Tignes [in the Tour de France in 2021] within the chilly and rain, I’d have most popular it to have been hotter that day!”
The climate is one issue that O’Connor can’t management, one other is the absence or presence of specific rivals. And within the case of the Vuelta, the shortage of biking’s present high two GC Grand Tour names, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Crew Emirates), could create a extra open race. However O’Connor’s viewpoint was, “it doesn’t change loads”, as he identified on Thursday,
“You continue to need to be on the entrance, there could also be extra alternatives. To be trustworthy, I couldn’t care much less,” he stated.
With or with out Vingegaard and Pogačar, O’Connor’s 2024 Vuelta journey, in any case, with have one thing of an end-of-an-era really feel to it, as will probably be his final for Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale previous to transferring onto Jayco-AIUIa subsequent season.
Given a lot of his improvement as a GC rider has include the French WorldTour workforce, a podium end in Madrid would definitely deliver the curtain down on the West Australian’s time there in a memorable vogue. To not point out placing a cease to these annoying fourth locations general, too.
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