O’Connor powered away to a solo victory atop La Molina, attacking from 8.5 kilometres to go and holding off a strong peloton of climbers to win the stage, taking the overall race lead in the process.
The 26-year-old from Subiaco seemingly caught his rivals unawares with his attack from afar, quickly getting a lead as counterattacks behind found little purchase as they fought into the headwind on the ascent.
O’Connor’s lead reached 25 seconds, but as the pace ramped up on the final rise to the finish, the peloton loomed behind, with the West Australian digging deep to round the final few bends to take a memorable win.
Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) crossed the line six seconds behind O’Connor to claim the runner-up spot with Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) in third.
"It's been hard the last month because I got very sick, so to come out here and win again is amazing. Every year I set myself a goal to win and it's nice to get it done early in the year," O'Connor said of his first win of 2022.
"I've been very confident this week because I know that my form is there. I didn't expect to be solo. I was hoping some guys would come with me, but in the end, I just had to go myself. I was lucky to hang on."
The 161.1km third stage of the Volta a Catalunya started in Perpignan and saw the riders venturing for the first time into the Catalan mountains.
The early breakaway included Simone Petilli (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert), Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH) and Casper Pedersen (Team DSM). At 50km into the stage, the quartet had pushed their lead out to a sizeable eight minutes ahead of the main field that was primarily led by Movistar.
Illness has dogged the WorldTour peloton in recent weeks and that appeared to be the case again on Stage 3, with both Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) and Australian Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) dropping away from the peloton and abandoning the race.
The early breakaway’s lead was steadily being whittled down on the climbs and descents into the valleys and by the base of the final climb up to the ski resort atop La Molina, their lead was down to an untenable 40 seconds.
Bizkarra was the strongest climber of those remaining, and he moved clear at the base of the ascent.
Henri Vandenabeele (Team DSM) was the first to attack out of the main bunch and he bridged across to Bizkarra, soon dropping the Spaniard. Vandenabeele built his lead out to 20 seconds as BikeExchange set the tempo behind with Callum Scotson on the front of the peloton.
The decisive move came from O'Connor, as he accelerated powerfully from near the front of the main group to move clear, with the other favourites either unwilling to match his early attack, or unable to.
O’Connor crossed the gap to Vandenabeele in a few hundred metres before dropping the Belgian rider, and from there he wasn’t caught again. He pushed his lead out to 25 seconds into the stiff headwind on the final climb, and despite attacks and surges by the other contenders behind, there was no matching the relentless pace of the Australian.
He won by six seconds and now holds a 10-second overall lead heading into Stage 4 of the Volta a Catalunya.
The race continues on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand, with Stage 4 of the Volta a Catalunya live from 0115 AEDT. The mountainous route should see the other contenders look to challenge the lead of O’Connor.
