DIG DEEPER

Grand tour cycling and test cricket have a lot more in common than you might think, for two sports that look and operate in such completely different ways. Both have a complex narrative that ebbs and flows. There is the impact of outside factors such as the road surface, the pitch, the weather, and the time of year. These affect both cycling and cricket in a way that just does not happen with a game of football, for example. One crucial part of both cricket and cycling is the mental fortitude and patience that is needed to succeed, especially if you are a rider looking for a finish high up in the general classification, or an opening batsman trying to dig in at the start of the match in order to bat the opposition into physical and psychological submission.

Ben O’Connor has been both at points in his life. Not quite a test cricketer, but an opening batsman for his school’s first XI, and has now finished fourth at his first ever Tour de France. He enjoys both sports because they are not static, not set: they take place in the real world. Another Western Australian, Justin Langer, was one half of the most successful test opening pair of this century, alongside Matthew Hayden. They were famed in the cricketing world for their grit and determination, the same qualities