Julien Jurdie, supervisor of the then-called AG2R Citroën biking crew, seems straight down the digicam.
He’s telling viewers of Netflix’s fly-on-the-wall biking sequence, Tour de France: Unchained, about his crew chief, West Australian Ben O’Connor.
“Ben is an aggressive rider with a robust character,” Jurdie says, earlier than leaving an virtually imperceptible pause.
“Who generally struggles to manage his feelings.”
The next episodes of the present, which hopes to do for biking what Drive to Survive did for Components 1, go away viewers in little doubt about O’Connor’s temperament.
With a liberal angle to dropping f-bombs that marks him as Australian greater than his accent ever may, O’Connor is just not proven in the most effective of lights, to place it mildly.
A form observer would say O’Connor displays indicators that he has rather a lot to be taught.
Ben O’Connor has generally wanted a chilly arduous actuality verify. (Getty Pictures: Dario Belingheri)
Steve Chainel, a former professional who acts as a buffer between the on-screen motion and the viewers, poses the query: “Is he (O’Connor) psychologically able to taking all that stress [of being team leader at the Tour de France]?”
The next scene reveals O’Connor sliding into the crew bus earlier than letting rip with an almighty “F***”.
It was not the one instance.
“We’re working with Ben so he can management his feelings when issues go incorrect,” Jurdie tells the digicam at one stage, with coach Stephen Barrett including that O’Connor “offers with stress otherwise”.
“Generally he simply has to have a launch valve the place the feelings simply come out,” Barrett says.
The insinuation is clear.
Is Ben O’Connor psychologically able to taking all that stress?
No.
And but now, a 12 months later, O’Connor is chief of the Vuelta a España, the third of biking’s three grand excursions.
From purple mist to purple jersey
Ben O’Connor’s victory on stage six accomplished his set of stage wins at every of the three grand excursions. (Getty Pictures: Tim de Waele)
Solely 5 Australians have ever worn the leaders jersey on the Vuelta — at the moment purple, having beforehand been a kaleidoscope of various colors starting from orange to gold to white to yellow.
O’Connor’s dominant, staggeringly spectacular victory on stage six made him simply the thirteenth Australian to win a stage on the Vuelta.
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The way of that victory, the place O’Connor discovered himself in a breakaway earlier than soloing 28 kilometres to assert victory by 4 minutes, 33 seconds forward of second place and a whopping six minutes, 31 seconds forward of the purple jersey group, was staggeringly much like one other of his grand tour victories, on the Tour de France in 2021.
There, after an early crash knocked him nicely out of total competition, O’Connor rebounded on stage 9 by soloing round 20km as much as the resort of Tignes, claiming stage victory by 5 minutes and 7 seconds (and 6 minutes forward of the yellow jersey group) to leap from 14th to second total behind Tadej Pogačar.
Jonas Vingegaard and Richard Carapaz finally overtook the West Australian to push him all the way down to fourth total, however that beautiful victory lived lengthy in O’Connor’s reminiscence — he referenced it in the course of the Tour documentary as being a sign he was a great rider.
However being a great rider is just not all the time sufficient.
O’Connor’s tendency in the direction of volatility was proven in full in the course of the iconic stage up the Puy de Dôme within the 2023 Tour de France the place, with the towering volcanic plug looming within the distance, O’Connor cracked — bodily and mentally.
“F***! F***! F***!” he screamed into his race radio.
For sure, his colleagues within the automotive weren’t impressed.
“It is so annoying when he does that,” supervisor Vincent Lavenu muttered within the crew automotive.
Ben O’Connor has needed to be taught to manage his feelings when issues go incorrect. (Getty Pictures: Dario Belingheri)
Later, O’Connor is proven asking “what is the level” of continuous to trip arduous when urged on by his crew automotive, when he was already plummeting down the final classification rankings.
After the climb, Lavenu tells O’Connor to get modified earlier than driving again down the mountain. “No, I am not f***ing getting modified,” O’Connor says, rushing by.
“He is irritating,” Lavenu stated.
“Even when he is going all out, he finds the time to seize the mic and go, ‘s***, f***, s***, f***’. I do not know why he does it. He ought to simply be pedalling.
“I imply, he can scream out loud however not within the mic, you understand? It is ineffective.
“He has a setback, he questions every part.
“He will get carried away after which he is simply dominated by his feelings.
“The sponsors will not pay for a rider who provides up like that, I am sorry.”
Racehorse, chief, father
Ben O’Connor has not all the time been capable of disguise his emotions. (Getty Pictures: Tim de Waele)
Earlier within the sequence, Lavenu described O’Connor as a racehorse.
“Ben is the primary to be disillusioned when issues do not go nicely. Ben is an emotional, appreciative child who’s anxious like all top-level athletes,” he stated.
“Racehorses are by no means calm, are they?”
And but, in Spain O’Connor has seemed to be relaxed — in so far as one may be when racing in scorching sizzling circumstances on a route that seems to be trying to discover each upward slope it could cram into every
His stage six victory put the West Australian into the lead of the race by 4 minutes and 51 seconds from three-time winner, Primož Roglič.
Simply two days later, Roglič gained greater than a minute again on O’Connor in a brutal present of power on the punishing, sun-drenched slopes to Cazorla.
However, after that, O’Connor hit again, preventing arduous to assert bonus seconds on the ultimate climb of stage 9 to push his lead out to 3 minutes, 53 seconds.
That is not the signal of a person on the brink.
However neither ought to he be.
Previous to the Vuelta getting underway, O’Connor’s spouse Sarah gave beginning to the couple’s first youngster.
O’Connor has beforehand stated Sarah retains him centered when she is with him, however some execs have instructed in interviews that turning into a father has given O’Connor superpowers.
Jack Haig advised CyclingNews that O’Connor was a “actually good rider” and that the peloton had “underestimated him” by permitting him a lot further time.
“He is been fourth within the Tour and he is possibly having the most effective season of his profession. He is simply develop into a father as nicely, so maybe that is part of it, too,
“It could be fairly arduous to shift him from the purple jersey and particularly the rostrum.”
O’Connor reaching his potential
Ben O’Connor is in purple, simply the fifth Australian to put on the leaders jersey on the Vuelta. (Getty Pictures: Tim de Waele)
Misplaced within the utter dominance of Pogačar’s historic Giro d’Italia victory, O’Connor rode a wonderfully mature race to complete in fourth spot, simply over 90 seconds outdoors the rostrum.
There was nothing spectacular about it — except for calling the organisers dinosaurs — simply stable, sincere driving that noticed the 28-year-old declare 4 top-10 stage finishes and maintain his fourth place all the way in which from stage seven via to the end.
General, simply two Aussies have ever completed on the ultimate basic classification podium on the Vuelta: Cadel Evans in 2009 and Jack Haig in 2021.
In actual fact, an Australian has solely ever stood on the rostrum of any grand tour 9 instances, illustrating the size of the duty that O’Connor is trying.
Earlier than this 12 months’s Giro, O’Connor wrote in a column for rouleur.cc that he was aiming for the rostrum.
“I believe I’m a good athlete, a great rider, and if I carry out like I consider I can do, I believe I may also get a podium in a grand tour,” he wrote.
“I do not care whether or not it is the Giro, Tour or the Vuelta, should you can end on the rostrum in one in all them, you are able to do it in all three.”
Earlier than getting too carried away, it must be said that there’s an awfully lengthy solution to go at this Vuelta.
Two weeks’ price of staggeringly arduous racing, with 11 of the remaining 12 levels described as at the very least hilly, with most mountainous, earlier than a time trial in Madrid which favours O’Connor’s rivals way over him, means even a podium place is a great distance off.
However O’Connor stays assured.
“I am not that nervous, to be sincere,” O’Connor advised media throughout the remainder day.
“It was so extremely sudden. I by no means dared to assume that I’d put on the purple jersey.
“There are quite a lot of GC riders, however only some get the possibility to put on a leaders jersey. I did not essentially take into account myself a kind of contenders, so that is further good. It additionally takes the stress off me.”
He stated it was as much as others to assault him, that means he may proceed to lean on Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale teammate Felix Gall.
“I really feel fairly good after 9 powerful and, above all, sizzling days. It was an aggressive race, however I like that.”
