With five Giro d’Italia editions already in his saddlebag, Larry Warbasse is hardly in unfamiliar territory at Italy’s Grand Tour. The Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale veteran says he’s finding a rich new vein of motivation by working for teammate Ben O’Connor in the race this May.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a GC leader to work for in a Grand Tour with podium potential, so that’s exciting,” the US rider told Cyclingnews. With three crunch stages coming from Thursday onwards in the Giro d’Italia, starting with a day out on the gravel roads of Tuscany, O’Connor will likely be looking for as much support as possible from his squad.
Warbasse says that on the gravel stage the most likely option for O’Connor will be to focus on getting through the day’s challenges unscathed, while in Friday’s time trial the aim will be to “go all out for as much time gain as possible”.
“Then when it comes to Saturday’s summit finish at Prati di Tivo, just like at Oropa last Sunday, we’ll bring him to the foot of the climb as well as we can, and then he can do his magic.”
O’Connor tried to follow race leader and stage winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) at Oropa too closely and ended up paying a high price, shedding a minute on stage 2. He’s currently running 10th overall, 1:24 back.
“You saw the other day Ben tried to follow and give it a go. It probably wasn’t the best idea, but it happens,” Warbasse said.
“And I think from hereon out we’ll focus on ourselves and maybe other guys at the same level. In any case we’ll try to do our own race without looking too much at the others.”
Regarding the upcoming triptych of GC challenges, starting with the gravel stage on Thursday, Warbasse observed, “Personally I’ll take them day by day, because they are all so different, although every stage is important and you have to think about what’s coming afterwards, too.
“Thursday we’ll try and stay safe, keep Ben out of trouble. It’s also only eight k's of gravel roads so it’s not crazy. Then in the time trial, it's about gaining some time on some other GC guys, hopefully, and finally on the mountain top stage, the best effort will likely come at the end.”
With the stages being so different, Warbasse commented, it was virtually impossible to calculate how much time could be taken or lost beforehand, although he strongly defended the sometimes-controversial inclusion of some off-road racing in a Grand Tour.
“I think it’s cool, because being a GT [Grand Tour] rider is about being an all-around rider, not just a climber,” he argued. “Maybe how you get on in the gravel is not just luck, it’s also about equipment, choices of tactics… that’s also part of cycling.”
Warming to his point, Warbasse stated that another appealing feature of the 2024 Giro d’Italia was “bringing back so much time trialling".
“When I was growing up, time trialling was a big thing. I can remember as a kid watching those 50-kilometre time trials in the Tour de France and they told us as young racers, that being a GC rider was about being a good TTer, a good climber - everything.
“Without them, being a good GC rider comes down, almost, to just being a good climber.”
For Warbasse, having O’Connor to protect in the Giro peloton makes for a different kind of race, but he says that working for the Australian is considerably eased by O’Connor’s natural talent for moving around in the peloton.
“He’s pretty full on, he stresses a bit but he’s easy to work for. Sometimes he’s always trying to ride in the front but he’s quite good in the peloton, so that helps a lot,” Warbasse explained.
From a team perspective things so far have gone well in the Giro and are operating well, Warbasse said, something fundamental in any GC rider’s options of success. How it will play out in O’Connor’s case, of course, will be a lot clearer come Sunday morning once the dust settles on the Prati di Tivo sumit finish, the time trial and Thursday’s gravel roads in Tuscany.
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