Ben O'Connor had his best time trial ever on stage 7 of the 2024 Giro d'Italia time trial.

O'Connor is no stranger to time trials, with his two Grand Tour stage wins both coming in the mountains. However, the Perth native was 7 seconds ahead of time trial specialists like Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and 2:07 ahead of stage winner Taddei Pogachar on Friday's stage.

Despite moving up seven places in the Giro d'Italia GC standings to fourth, 3:33 behind leader Pogachar and in contention for a podium finish, if not the overall win, O'Connor expressed mixed feelings about the day.

"With the help of my mechanics, I finally got the chain back on.

"I think I did a really good time and the power was really good.

"Physically, it was one of the better TT bikes. I had perfect pacing. ...... A bit disappointing.

O'Connor said of the amount of time he spent trying to solve the mechanical problem, as well as the stress and tension that such a situation creates. It's a little disappointing, but we could have done better."

The team was able to get the car back on the road.

The incident occurred at a point on the time trial route where road construction was taking place and bags of gravel lined the route.

Machine trouble or not, O'Connor fought the clock on the roads of central Italy.

On stage 2, O'Connor made a major miscalculation on the race's first summit finish, trying to follow Tadei Pogachar's attack, but blew up and lost a minute.

It remains to be seen how O'Connor will fare in Saturday's summit finish at Prati di Thibo, or if Pogachar attacks again, this time choosing to ride at his own pace.

A strong showing from the Australian will allow him to approach the second time trial of the Giro on stage 14 with more confidence.

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