O’Connor, who began the 2022 Tour de France with his eyes on a podium in the General Classification, crashed awkwardly nine kilometres into Stage 8. He landed on the same spot he crashed on in Stage 2.
The second crash worsened the effects of the first, causing O’Connor to experience “shooting pains, like being stabbed with a knife” while riding “pretty much with one leg.”
He initially took a day-by-day approach to assessing the impact of the injury on his ability to finish the Tour, but was forced to pull out on the second rest day (last night, AEST).
"It's been really difficult,” said O’Connor. “I fought yesterday and I really wanted to see if I could get past this point of pain, but it's just way too much.
“You have like a knife in your arse, more or less, so it's pretty brutal and I don’t think it's going to get better by the end of the race, so I won't be making the start of Stage 10."
While O’Connor’s GC hopes were all but over, he had been hoping to recover from the injury and aim for a stage win in the latter part of the Tour.
“You still have the hope that you could still win a stage,” O’Connor said.
“It was never a lack of form. It was just pure bad luck. All I can do is try and shrug my shoulders and pass it off and remember that this sport is brutal,” he added.
“It can be a bit frustrating but in the end there’s not a lot you can do about that. I just have to reset and think now about the future and how I can then continue performing like I dream, and like I hope, and like I know I can be.”
O’Connor’s focus now shifts to La Vuellta a España, which starts on 19 August.
“I was always going to do La Vuelta a España,” O’Connor said.
“Hopefully I’ll be going there now with a different attitude to what I thought I was going to be doing. It was more of an open book, but I think it’s clear now since this Tour de France hasn’t gone so well, my objective will be to do my best GC, hopefully, in La Vuelta.”
AG2R Citroën General Manager Vincent Lavenu supported O’Connor’s decision to rest now and target La Vuelta refreshed and ready to fight for the overall title.
“Given Ben’s physical condition, it was obvious that he should not start the next stage in order to preserve his physical integrity,” said Lavenu.
“We felt that he has been chasing the last few days for the team, driven by the desire not to disappoint us.
"The fact that we felt that he should stop and rebuild himself physically and mentally, relieved him. He will be able to approach the second part of the season calmly with the Vuelta a Espana as his objective.”
While the Tour de France hasn’t gone as planned for O’Connor, he was visibly buoyed on by teammate Bob Jungels Stage 9 victory – a victory that was also made all the more meaningful by overcoming a lengthy recovery from arterial endofibrosis.
“I was so just happy for him,” said O’Connor of his Tour de France roommate. “After so much difficulty and seeing how much hard work he puts in…It’s been amazing to see just pure dedication to get back to the level that he knows he can be.
“It was definitely a happy moment just to forget everything. It reminded me of last year and how the boys would have felt when I won my stage of the Tour. It was nice to see it from the other side of the fence.”
Tune in tonight for Stage 10 from Morzine les Portes du Soleil to Megeve. Watch all the action live from 9:20pm (AEST) on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker, 9:30pm (AEST) on SBS and SBS On Demand.
