Out with the brown shorts and in with the wins.
2024 has marked a revolution at Decathlon AG2R2, with a brand new sponsor, a brand new race bike sponsor, a brand new look and a newfound knack for victory which has positioned them among the many high groups within the WorldTour peloton.
The massive French retailer has come on board as title sponsor and the looks of their galaxy-themed jerseys on the entrance of races has grow to be commonplace. The win tally from 2023 has already been surpassed and Decathlon AG2R look set to higher victory hauls from the mid-late 2010s, a time when Romain Bardet was in his heyday with the French group.
Decathlon AG2R have taken 12 wins to this point in 2024, with a domino impact that has seen all 30 riders on the roster firing on all cylinders. It’s the quickest they’ve reached that tally of wins since 2005.
With the momentum of a group on hearth, the following aim is a Grand Tour podium on the Giro d’Italia with Ben O’Connor.
Such an necessary end result has eluded Decathlon AG2R since 2017, when Bardet was third on the Tour, a 12 months after he was runner-up to the dominant GC rider of the time, Chris Froome.
“I believe the blokes have gotten their mojo again and perhaps acquired a little bit of a whipping final 12 months,” a relaxed O’Connor tells Cyclingnews.
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“Also me, not as a result of I used to be lazy, however as a result of I made too many errors, in all probability in my preparation as I’ve mentioned earlier than.”
With all of the speak of the elevated price range and new Van Rysel bikes, which have clearly been contributing components, one rider who is aware of finest simply how a lot Decathlon has affected the group is O’Connor’s roommate from the Alps and likewise the Giro, Larry Warbasse, who’s now into his sixth 12 months on the French outfit.
“With Decathlon coming in, there’s an actual enhance in motivation. We acquired new tools, and after fairly a number of totally different adjustments, it’s virtually renewed the spark within the group,” Warbasse tells Cyclingnews.
“Once issues begin rolling in the precise course, you catch momentum. I believe we have at all times had tremendous robust riders however now we’re simply utilising everybody higher. We’re using higher as a group and I believe we’re taking the race on extra. It’s cool to see, and it is good to be part of.”
The centrepiece of O’Connor’s 2023, the Tour de France, was a catastrophe as GC bids go – shedding time on the primary stage and falling to six:10 down on the chief by simply the sixth day after the preliminary mountain exams. Illness and an absence of form meant he was a great distance off from his podium end on the Critérium du Dauphiné simply the month prior and from his fourth-place end on the Tour in 2021.
However, with two wins in 2024, backed up by constant top-five finishes on GC on the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of the Alps, O’Connor is now using the wave of each his and his teammates’ successes.
“It helps when your leaders are good. I’ve been first rate. Benoît Cosnefroy has been good and I believe that actually additionally helps as a result of you’ve gotten the blokes who are supposed to carry out, performing,” says O’Connor.
“Because as quickly as that does not occur, groups at all times look a bit common.”
Cosnefroy returned to profitable methods for the primary time since September 2022 on the Tour des Alpes Maritimes earlier than he went on to assert Paris-Camembert and Brabantse Pijl. However, it isn’t solely the Frenchman and O’Connor who’re on high, profitable type.
Joining O’Connor on the Giro will probably be Aurelien Paret-Peintre, who gained a stage on the corsa rosa in 2023 and together with his brother Valentin has been key to the Australian’s GC ambitions to this point in 2024. The latter has proved a significant climbing domestique, highlighted finest in his and O’Connor’s tandem assault within the UAE which scored them a stage win atop Jebel Jais.
Aurelien’s latest victory on the Tour of Alps makes him one of many 5 totally different victors at Decathlon AG2R in 2024 alongside these talked about and the French pair of Dorion Godon and Paul Lapeira, who’ve discovered their career-best type and netted three wins at WorldTour degree between them.
“It’s nice when the shape disperses over the entire group, it simply takes a spark off that heavy cloud over you, the place it virtually falls on you to carry out,” O’Connor says.
“That’s in all probability the principle factor the place we have been informed that we have to, as a group, carry out. Not simply that one man or these two guys as a result of they ought to constantly carry out however the remainder of it is advisable to step up. That’s the place the blokes have truly taken it on.”
The connection between the Paret-Peintre duo, O’Connor and the remainder of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s Giro squad has been constructed all through the season and an extended altitude camp up at Mount Etna.
“All the races we’ve been largely collectively, Tirreno was the same group, UAE – there was a few the boys there – after which Etna it was me Aurelien, Larry and Valentin,” says O’Connor.
“So you develop a little bit of a group spirit. I believe it is simply there you start to belief who you are working for and that is the principle factor.
“If the boys imagine that I can carry out and I’m truly good, then it goes a great distance. If you say you’re going to assist out a pal, you are going assist out a mate, however when you already know that your mate’s truly on high type, it goes a step additional.”
Chasing a Grand Tour podium within the face of Pogačar
The cool, modest however quietly assured Aussie has grow to be a preferred determine amongst his teammates on the French squad, his willingness to assault even within the age of dominant famous person GC riders profitable the favour of these using in assist.
“He’s cool and It’s good to have an English-speaking roommate on the group. We simply roomed collectively for 3 weeks at our altitude camp, we have been rooming collectively right here, and we’ll room collectively [at the] Giro,” says Warbasse.
“It’s a pleasure to trip for him and it is cool as a result of he likes to take the race on. He likes to race laborious and it is good to race on the entrance and race from the entrance.”
Even with a sure Slovenian taking the beginning on the Giro, you may guarantee Ben O’Connor gained’t be afraid to make use of his finest legs, ought to he have them all through the robust three weeks of racing from Piemonte to Rome.
Much of the discourse in latest weeks has been about forgone conclusions and a sure degree of predictability creeping into the game because the likes of Mathieu van der Poel or Tadej Pogačar – proceed to dominate the most important races.
O’Connor believes the latter gained’t be so silly as to underestimate his foremost rivals on the Giro. No one might be that assured heading into the unpredictability of a Grand Tour, the place chaos and type can come and go in a flash and on the worst moments.
“In any Grand Tour, except you actually are head and shoulders above everybody else, you’re employed in direction of it however that does not imply that you just begin a race and be like ‘shit I’m gonna win’,” says the Australian.
“You’d should be fairly assured man. I do not assume even Pogi would go right into a race considering like that, as a result of there are too many issues that may go unsuitable.”
After all, Pogačar – regardless of his unrivalled skill to carry out from January to October – hasn’t truly gained a Grand Tour since July 2021. Granted, he’s gained close to sufficient the whole lot else he’s wished to in that point interval, however he isn’t completely unbeatable.
O’Connor doesn’t essentially should drop Pogačar with a surprising assault on stage 2 to Oropa or stage 20 on the Monte Grappa double ascent. He needs to trip as if Pogačar had not determined to make his Giro debut.
“The famous person guys are at all times going to be there. It was at all times the identical when Froomey was round and guys like [Alberto] Contador and [Vincenzo] Nibali,” O’Connor says.
“It’s the identical query for the Classics guys in opposition to Mathieu – how do you intend your race? Well, you do not actually change so much, you simply get on with it. Races nonetheless play out in very comparable methods as they’ve finished earlier than.
“You can maybe shock and assault some aggressive levels, that may at all times be fascinating, however you do not actually do much more. You simply go to the race and attempt to maintain on. If you are good, you stick with him, and then you definately attempt to play your playing cards proper.”
O’Connor’s Grand Tour expertise began on the Giro in 2018 when he seemed set for a debut top-10 end if not for a crash on the nineteenth stage. Coincidentally, this 12 months’s Giro begins in Venaria Reale, the identical begin location of the day the place a damaged collarbone ruined his maiden Giro.
He’s mentioned prior to now that there’s no unfinished enterprise with the Giro regardless of that early missed alternative, however maybe it is as a result of his targets are a lot greater than they had been six years in the past.
O’Connor gained’t draw back from difficult for the win and a podium end can be one of the best in his profession after coming shut on the 2021 Tour, the place he took a superb stage win in Tignes and completed fourth general.
“Oh, I believe it would be big if Ben was on the rostrum,” says Warbasse, conscious of simply how a lot O’Connor has put into his preparation from their time at Mount Etna. “
For any rider, that is a profession crowning achievement, and I believe he is succesful. So if we may get him up there, that may be superb.”