Si voir Tadej Pogacar et Mathieu van der Poel sur le podium de la course en ligne des Championnats du monde n'est pas une surprise, la présence de Ben O'Connor était en revanche beaucoup moins attendue. Mais dans la lignée d'une saison 2024 qui restera inoubliable pour lui, l'Australien s'est montré costaud tout au long de l'épreuve et opportuniste dans les derniers kilomètres pour s'inviter aux côtés du Slovène et du Néerlandais. "C’est une belle récompense d’être sur le podium des Championnats du monde avec Mathieu van der Poel et Tadej Pogacar. J’ai eu de bons résultats cette année, et je pense que ce podium s’inscrit dans la continuité", déclare Ben O'Connor auprès d'une équipe Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team qui voit l'un de ses coureurs être vice-champion du monde pour le deuxième fois de son histoire après Romain Bardet en 2018 à Innsbruck.
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00:00Yeah, it's a good company, I've done well in races as well this year so I guess it's
00:23a fitting podium and I'm just really really proud to be honest, I didn't really expect
00:26that today and credit to the boys to kind of motivate me because I really didn't feel
00:32super good the first couple of laps so yeah, I guess it's just a little pep talk to set
00:40your mind to it and yeah, I just had really good timing in the end to come away with the
00:45second.
00:46Oh yeah, it just came, I wanted to be at the back and I wanted to kind of slip through
00:51the middle because as soon as you go from the side everyone can see you so I don't
00:57know, once again it's just how bike racing works, tactics, being smart, I don't really
01:02know what you can put it down to but I found a great moment and then yeah, as soon as you
01:07get a jump like that, I mean you have to commit to chase it down so yeah, I'm a very very
01:14happy man.
01:16Well I didn't win so he's got the rainbow jersey but for my own personal sake it's a
01:22really really really top world class one day race result, you know I haven't really done
01:28a tonne in one day races so yeah, to get a second here in the world champs and the biggest
01:33of them all, it's a pretty sweet feeling.
01:36So we might see you in Lombardy?
01:38No, no no no, I'm going to be trying to put my feet up because I've had a big year and
01:44yeah, this is a nice icing on the cake.