Ben O’Connor began Wednesday’s stage 4 of Paris-Good well-placed in fourth total and with a constructive mind set after a powerful second for Jayco-AlUla within the staff time trial, nevertheless the icy rain that precipitated a pause within the race might have additionally poured chilly water over the Australian’s GC hopes on the eight-stage race.
O’Connor crossed the end line on the prime of La Loge des Gardes in twenty seventh spot, 2:10 down on stage 4 winner João Almeida (UAE Crew Emirates). That outcome despatched him tumbling down the overall classification 16 spots to twentieth, and he’s now sitting 2:30 down on new race chief Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), who got here second to Almeida on the stage.
“Yesterday was a terrific day for us, at this time not so good,” mentioned sports activities director Matthew Hayman on a Jayco-AlUla social media submit. “However there may be nonetheless a number of racing right here and the blokes are going effectively.
“It was fairly unlucky however we aren’t completed with this Paris-Good.”
O’Connor had headed into Wednesday’s stage blissful together with his place on the general, simply 21 seconds behind the highest spot, and inspired by the staff time trial.
“We put in a terrific efficiency as a staff however personally I felt like I used to be accountable for my race inside that TTT so it was signal,” O’Connor had mentioned earlier than the beginning in an interview put out by Jayco-AlUla. “If I can simply go off that then at this time [I’m] pondering I can do experience.”
That, nevertheless, was earlier than the stage was turned the other way up after heavy rain, hail and sleet fell and with the protection threat of descending on icy roads and the race was then paused and neutralised for a time at 46km to go.
“We had been struck with a fairly heavy hail and ice bathe there in the course of the stage,” mentioned Hayman. “It got here out of nowhere. Actually not realizing what was going to occur, the bunch was caught on the aspect of the mountain … acquired fairly chilly throughout that interval.”
After the pause and loads of confusion over the continued stops and begins the race acquired underway once more at 29km to go however the toll the climate, uncertainty and excessive chilly had taken was clear. Soaking moist riders struggled to attempt to heat up and get going whereas Steff Cras (TotalEnergies) even needed to withdraw as a result of hypothermia.
That made for an unpredictable situation when the race exploded on the ultimate climbs, the class 2 Côte de La Chabanne with 13km to go and the seven kilometre lengthy class 1 La Loge des Gardes which delivered the summit end. Quite a few riders who would usually be anticipated to do effectively because the street turned up rapidly drifted away because the circumstances meant the physique did not react because it usually would.
There was no signal of O’Connor within the main fragment of the bunch that might contest the rostrum locations because the race entered the ultimate 5 kilometres and he was not alone in shedding appreciable time with others among the many GC hopefuls together with Neilson Powless (EF Schooling-EasyPost) who dropped 2:16 and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) who shed 1:56.
Jayco-AlUla did not launch any remark from O’Connor after the stage however the disappointment could not have been clear when he crossed the road 2:10 down with a shake of the top.
