Decathlon CMA CGM are taking Ben O’Connor back in 2027, on a two-year contract. He was with them from 2021 to 2024, spent two seasons at Jayco AlUla, and now he is returning. The team wrote on social media: “Ben O’Connor is back home!” Exclamation mark included.
Back home. Fine. When a bike comes back to my workshop after two years elsewhere, I don’t put it on the stand and say welcome. I look at the saddle. Height, setback, tilt. A rider who changes teams has mostly changed saddle, and it takes him six months to find his marks again. So a rider who comes back, does he find his old measurements? Did someone write them down in 2024, on a scrap of paper taped inside the van? At mine, yes. In biro, on the workshop fridge door, with the club lad’s name and the pressure he likes.
With them, he won stages of the Tour and the Vuelta. Cyclingnews says he’ll be able to ride for himself, and he joins Paul Seixas. That’s the project. Me, I see two setups to fit in the same truck.
A saddle height written on a fridge is not a document. I note that it exists.
Home, for a bike, is the spanner you know the feel of and the cable you’ve already heard rubbing in its housing. I’ll go and dig out the settings of the lads who left the club this year, then. You never know who’s coming back, mind you.
It’s true, we checked: Cyclingnews.
