The sweetest silver: Ben O’Connor’s scintillating Worlds Road Race

Ben O’Connor has delivered an outstanding performance for the ARA Australian Cycling Team, winning silver in a breathless UCI Men Elite Road Race World Championship in Zurich.

On a brutal day when nobody could match Tadej Pogačar (SLO), O’Connor rode the one-day race of his career thus far.

The West Australian traded blows with a world-class chasing group, including former champions Mathieu van der Poel (NED) and Remco Evenepoel (BEL), before landing a decisive punch in the final two kilometres, attacking away to take the runner-up spot.

O’Connor had time to wave to the Swiss crowd as he crossed the line 34 seconds behind the Slovenian phenom. Defending champion Van der Poel rounded out the podium in the sprint.

The result capped off an sensational race by the ARA Australian Cycling Team where teammates Jay Vine and Jai Hindley also featured prominently.

“It’s some good company,” O’Connor said when asked about taking the podium with Pogačar and van der Poel. “I’ve done well in races as well this year, so, I guess it’s a fitting podium and I’m just really, really proud, to be honest. I didn’t really expect that today.

“Credit to the boys to kind of motivate me because I really didn’t feel super good for the first couple of laps. A little pep talk to set your mind to it, and I just had really good timing in the end to come away with the second.”

Securing silver, O'Connor crosses the line with a smile. (Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

With over 4,200 metres of climbing, the 274-kilometre World Championship from Winterthur to Zurich was always expected to be a tough one. But few would expected three-time Tour de France winner Pogačar to attack from as far as he did, escaping the peloton with 100km remaining.

O’Connor tried to get the wheel of Pogačar, but nobody could latch on as the Slovenian bridged across to a 16-rider lead group that included Vine, who had initiated the breakaway with his own earlier attack.

While Pogačar attacked the break to go clear off the front, the field behind was shredding to pieces.

O’Connor and Hindley were present and correct for Australia among the main group of chasers, but that group lacked cohesion and the attacks flew left, right and centre over the next hour of racing.

O'Connor traded attacks with an elite group of chasers. (Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)

With 20km remaining, over the last ascent of the main Witikon climb (1.9km, 6.3%), O’Connor bridged across a crucial split to ensconce himself within an elite group of seven: Evenepoel, van der Poel, Marc Hirschi (SUI), Enric Mas (ESP), Ben Healy (IRL), Toms Skujins (LAT) were at that point 40 seconds behind Pogačar.

After a period of cooperation, what followed was one of the most exciting podium battles in a World Championships road race: the seven riders traded blow after blow, splitting and reforming as every one of them launched attacks of their own for the silver and bronze medals.

O’Connor was at one moment the aggressor, at another on the back foot, depending whether he found himself in front of, or behind, a split.

The group, however, was so evenly matched that they came back together for the descent into Zurich, none of them having been able to maintain any separation.

That was until O’Connor, the Grand Tour climber from Perth, launched one last flyer with two kilometres to go. This time, his rivals blinked, the gap was made, and O’Connor drove it home to win a stunning silver medal behind the new world champion.

“I wanted to be at the back,” O’Connor said about his attack.

“I wanted to slip through in the middle because as soon as you come from the side everyone can see you. It’s just how bike racing works – tactics, being smart, I don’t really know what you can put it down to – but I found a great moment. As soon as you get a jump like that, you have to commit to chase it down.”

O’Connor, this year’s runner-up in the Vuelta a España, joins fellow Australians Michael Matthews, Simon Gerrans, Matthew Goss and Robbie McEwen as world championship silver medallists of the road race. Only Cadel Evans has ever won the event in the green and gold.

“I’m a very, very happy man,” O’Connor said.

“I didn’t win, he’s [Pogačar] got the rainbow jersey. But, for my own personal sake it’s a really, really top world-class one-day race result. I haven’t really done a ton in one-day races, so to get a second here in the World Champs, the biggest of them all, it’s a pretty sweet feeling.”

The men's road race concludes a superb UCI Road World Championships for the ARA Australian Cycling Team, which won world titles in the women's individual time trial, and in the mixed relay team time trial with a squad that included O'Connor.

2024 UCI Road World Championships - Results

Men Elite Road Race

1. Tadej Pogačar (SLO) 6:27:30
2. Ben O’Connor (AUS) +0:34
3. Mathieu van der Poel (NED) +0:58
18. Jai Hindley (AUS) +3:52
46. Nick Schultz (AUS) +12:09

Feature photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images