Ben O'Connor (Team Jayco AlUla) set a superb time to finish 11th on stage 10 in the individual time trial at the 2026 Giro d'Italia on Tuesday, where he gained time on almost all of his general classification rivals and climbing up to fifth place overall.
It was a long flat 42km test against the clock for the riders between Viareggio and Massa along the exposed coastline. Filippo Ganna (Netcompany INEOS) dominated the stage in 45'53", finishing 1'54" ahead of teammate and GC rider Thymen Arensman in second and 1'59" clear of Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ United) in third. Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) kept the maglia rosa despite losing 4'57" to Ganna and 1'57" to Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), meaning he kept pink by 27".
O'Connor had a lot to be very happy for. This TT performance shows he may well be starting an upward trajectory after a shaky stage 9 where the Australian was struggling with a bit of illness, he is now in the shake-up for a podium spot. The rider from Perth beat Vingegaard by 18" as well as fellow Perth rider Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) by 49", Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) by 36", and Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) by 1'34". Eulálio, the race leader, lost 2'15" to the Australian on the stage.
These time gains now mean that O'Connor is just 24" back on Gall after the Austrian lost the time he was expecting to in the TT. O'Connor is also 51" from third place Arensman as well. The time trial hasn't caused the huge gaps that we have become used to in recent Grand Tours. Thanks to the performances by Vingegaard and Gall in the mountains and Eulálio's massive lead from his breakaway, the TT has actually condensed the GC with the top five all within three minutes of the leader, Eulálio.
"It's good. It was a good ride." O'Connor told the Cycling Pro Net YouTube channel after his time trial. "I felt much better. I was a bit under the weather on stage 9, thankfully the rest day was there. But yeah, back to normal hopefully with that ride."
Out of all the GC riders, O'Connor probably didn't stand out as one of the riders to be taking chunks of time off his rivals, but he put in a potentially career best ride against the clock.
"If you're on GC it is your job to spend a lot of time on the TT bike so it kind of kills you when you have a bad ride and you can see how much of a difference it makes against other guys with bigger time differences than on Blockhaus." Explained the Australian. "This is why we invest in it and do our best."
On his own performance, he described his effort as "smooth" adding "I was fading in the final couple of kilometres, though. Probably didn't need to go out as hard but I did a pretty good ride in the end."
A pretty good ride is an understatement and now with the time trial behind him, O'Connor's deficit to the podium is 51 seconds, with the mountain stages still to come, he can look ahead with confidence.
Cover image credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
