When Ben O’Connor stepped into the 2022 Tour de France, he was doing it with red-hot form, high expectations and the pressure – be it self-imposed or otherwise – that seems nigh-impossible to avoid when you are lining up the year after having all of a sudden given a French team a high finish at their home Grand Tour.
It was a far cry from the no-expectations entry to the Tour in 2021 that ultimately ended with him handing his new AG2R-Citroën squad fourth place overall. The outcome was also just as much of a contrast.
