Golden boy O'Connor: "It's not just about Pogacar, Evenepoel also has a great one-day record"

With the Mixed Relay, the first race at the World Cup was held on Wednesday. The Australians ultimately captured the title with a small difference and gained additional experience heading into Sunday's race. Ben O'Connor, recently second in the Vuelta a España, told the mixed zone how he experienced the course.

"It's a tough course," judged the Aussie. "It's more technical than it might look on paper, so I'm curious how that will be in the peloton. At times, it gets pretty narrow. If the push is at the front, I still want to see how that goes. In Quebec, for example, you can be in the last wheel until two laps from the end, but every race track is different," he explains.

So the Australians already won gold at the Mixed Relay and have the Quebec winner in their ranks with Michael Matthews. Yet the puncher is not the only option for the men from Oceania. "We are not just focusing on Michael; we have several guys who can achieve excellence. Jai Hindley was there, and Jay Vine and I also did a good job in the Mixed Relay. So we can compete with multiple guys in different ways."

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O'Connor compares Evenepoel's one-day record to Pogacar's

O'Connor was also asked about his views on Tadej Pogacar on this course, but he honestly responded - as we know him. "It's not just about Pogacar. Remco also has a great one-day record, so we must look at several guys. In doing so, we have to play to our strengths and maybe do something that doesn't seem normal. We just have to go out there and make it a nice race."

Finally, what can we expect from the climber himself? "The first week after the Vuelta was really bad; I've never felt so bad physically after a big tour. In the second week, I felt like something had run over me; I was always so tired. But here, it went well, so I'm ready for the one race I still have left this year."