In the Giro d'Italia, the line between courage and recklessness is always a faint one. Ben O'Connor first realized he had crossed that line when he saw Tadej Pogachar's rear wheel disappear further and further from view less than 4km from the summit of Oropa on stage 2.

It is hard to say which was the bigger test for O'Connor: the climb up Oropa or the long descent to the team bus in Biella that followed. On the climb, he desperately resisted the onslaught of Pogachar. On the way down the mountain after the stage, he was haunted by the realization that his bravery had spilled over the border into stupidity.

"I decided to follow Pogi. I was in very good shape, so it was worth a try," O'Connor said after the stage, outside the bus of the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. But maybe it was a little too long."

O'Connor had said before this Giro that he wanted to go head-to-head with Pogachar, and he was right again here. When Pogachar launched the inevitable attack 4.4 km from the finish, O'Connor immediately got on his wheels and dared to reach out and touch the flames as everyone around him was on guard.

Within a few hundred meters, O'Connor too could not stand the heat and had to let go of his grip on Pogachar's wheel. O'Connor had to let go of Pogachar's wheel. O'Connor fell behind Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), but O'Connor still kept up the pace to limit the damage. Thomas, by contrast, was content to chase O'Connor and leave Pogachar to battle history, at least for now.

While O'Connor's strategy was more courageous, Thomas' was more pragmatic; after the two were caught by the chase group, O'Connor's efforts began to pay off and he gradually broke away from the pack. At the summit, he was in 13th place, one minute behind Pogachar. More to the point, he was 33 seconds behind Thomas and Daniel Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe).

After the finish, O'Connor boarded the bus, and long, mournful cries of abuse echoed from the back of the Decathlon AG2R bus. O'Connor's time had been lost to Thomas and others on a day when he was considered the strongest of all the riders chasing Pogachar in this Giro.

After showering and dressing, O'Connor smiled ruefully. While his frustrations were not completely gone in 30 minutes, the Subiaco native was pleased that he had already acknowledged his mistake and started to move on from it.

Oropa's sanctuary was built during the Counter-Reformation era for pilgrims to do penance as they climbed toward the chapel at the top. O'Connor wore a sackcloth and ashes after freewheeling down the mountain.

"At every stage," he confessed, "it is important to be the fastest to the line, not the fastest after the great pogi.

O'Connor first began to realize that he might pay a great price for his efforts when Thomas refused his plea to pass to help him track Pogachar.

"I was the only one in front, waiting for the group to come from behind.

"Everything happened so fast. To be honest, the end of today's stage was pretty normal. I'm proud of the fact that I tried to race aggressively, and I'm proud of the fact that I was able to do it.

Of course, it could have been worse. O'Connor, who had lost contact with Thomas, Martinez, and others, was not inclined to cling to that thought for comfort, but he still managed to keep his losses within manageable limits.

"Such time loss should never be allowed to happen. 'I should hold myself to a higher standard than to lose time needlessly. I made a little mistake today. I don't want to make the same mistake again."

In the overall standings, O'Connor is currently in 10th place. He is already 1:45 behind Pogachar, but only 39 seconds away from the podium. His annoyance at the time wasted by Thomas and Martinez is tempered by the realization that there are still over 3,000 km to go from here to Rome.

"We have a long way to go, and some riders have already dropped out of contention for GC," said Thomas. 'I think there are a few minutes between the riders on the stage to Livigno. But at the start of the race, we definitely don't want to lose 30 seconds."