Ben O’Connor: “The boys were super good”
“It’s been a while since I last won a mountain top. It was amazing. The boys were super good today. Second win of the year it’s pretty cool. I was not confident in my sprint at the end so we decided to go full before the 1km to go mark. Valentin Paret-Peintre almost dropped me off but we managed to get a gap and I kept going till the end. I felt super good all day, even in the crosswind. It’s sweet to be in the mix for the overall win before Jebel Hafeet [Ben is 2nd in the general classification].”
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Ben O’Connor raised his arms in triumph atop Jebel Jais and landed the DECATHLON AG2R LA MONDIALE team its first WorldTour win of the season.
News: Tactics makes perfect
The team gave a tactical master class in stage 3 of the UAE Tour, as our sports director Sébastien Joly explains: “Sam Bennett, Gianluca Pollefliet and Valentin Retailleau did an outstanding job in the crosswinds. Bruno Armirail then upped the pace at the bottom of Jebel Jais. Ben O’Connor had talked to Nicolas Prodhomme and Valentin Paret-Peintre this morning to ask them to force a selection on the climb, and that is exactly what they did after Mikkel Bjerg had controlled the ascent for a long time. Ben’s performance was out of this world. It was a fantastic collective victory.”
