Team boss Andrew Christie-Johnston, who has forged a reputation for launching elite careers having offered Richie Porte his start on a bike, gave O'Connor a similar opportunity but said it was another Tasmanian Tour de France rider who was ultimately responsible.

"Wes Sulzberger gave me a call about Ben after they did Tour of Qinghai Lake together at high altitude in 2015," Christie-Johnston said. "I looked at those results and thought this kid is special, let's give him a go. I went on the back of what Wes said and the rest is history."

History is an accurate description after O'Connor marked his maiden Tour de France by winning the 145-kilometre ninth stage from Cluses to Tignes by a staggering margin of 5 minutes and 7 seconds.

Catapulting the 25-year-old West Australian up to second overall, behind reigning champ Tadej Pogacar, the performance was celebrated by both Christie-Johnston and Sulzberger watching on in Hobart and Brisbane respectively.

"I was very emotional and very proud," Christie-Johnston said.

"It surprised me because it wasn't the plan but it also didn't surprise me because he's been in very good form.

"He was still banged up from an earlier crash but saw an opportunity and thought he would be hard to contain.

"On your first Tour de France, you are often conservative and just see if you can survive, so I was surprised when he went into the move but thought 'he's got a good chance here'.

"When he went solo I knew he was not going to get caught, you could just tell.

"It was a very special moment and great satisfaction for me. I've always tried to help people get to that next level so to see them succeed at that level is fantastic because people can see guys coming through from small teams in Australia and see there are pathways, and that all started with Richie."

Sulzberger, of Flowery Gully, who rode Le Tour in 2010 as well as the Vuelta a Espana four times, had edged out an 18-year-old O'Connor after the pair broke away in a gruelling stage of the 2014 Tour of Tasmania into New Norfolk.

The following year they were teammates in the Navitas Satalyst Continental team contesting the Tour of Qinghai Lake in China.

"I remember he just got better as the race went on and I was blown away by him because he had not done any altitude training prior to that," Sulzberger said.

"When we came back to Australia I said: 'Ben, what do you want to do?' and he said he wanted to make it to Europe. I told him the best way would be with Andrew's team because he definitely had the talent, he just needed to keep his head screwed on.

"So I called Andrew and told him. I said: 'He's got super talent even though he's a bit green, if he gets with a good team like yours he could really go on' so it's awesome to finally see him do that."

Christie-Johnston revealed there were a few omens to suggest it would be O'Connor's day.

"It brought back a lot of memories for me. The reason why he got signed to the WorldTour in the first place was his performance in the Tour de Savoie Mont-Blanc when he finished third on a stage along the same roads.

"It was virtually the same stage in reverse and it was also a stinking cold day. So it was exactly the same location and weather and I just thought 'This is meant to happen'. And Savoie is also the region where his team, AG2R, is based.

"What he did at Mont Blanc I thought 'This kid, if he continues to progress at this rate, could be the next Richie Porte', which is an easy comparison for me to make."

Taking Sulzberger's advice, Christie-Johnson signed O'Connor to his Avanti IsoWhey Sport outfit in 2015 and Tasmania continued to play a pivotal role in his development.

"We had a training camp around the Stan Siejka Criterium and the uni put us up on their campus. We stayed on for another 10 days and they asked if they could do some tests on our riders. It was our pre-season training camp. He would have done the Stan Siejka and may even have done a couple of Scottsdale loops with Richie because we did do a few at the time."

After a podium finish at the national under-23 time trial, O'Connor won a mountain-top stage and the overall title at the New Zealand Cycling Classic.

"After that we knew there was a fair chance of it being a short-term arrangement in this team and by June he had signed WorldTour," Christie-Johnston added.

O'Connor spent three years with Team Dimension Data followed by another with NTT Pro Cycling before AG2R Citroën signed him up, initially for a year and then until 2024 - doubtless influenced by him claiming a stage win at last year's Giro d'Italia.

Sulzberger and Christie-Johnston remain proud of having helped launch O'Connor's career and confident he can remain in contention in the world's biggest bike race.

"That's what I was a part of that team for, to help nurture young talent coming through and I was happy to make that call to help Ben because he definitely had the talent and also was a nice, well-mannered young guy not taking anything for granted," Sulzberger said.

"Unless he has a really bad day, from what I've seen he gets better as a race goes on so I hope he can continue to do that again. That would be incredible."

Christie-Johnston added: "I think he's capable of remaining on the podium, but we know how brutal the Tour de France is and now it's all about recovery.

"He's produced an amazing ride and will walk away with a stage win but it's important that he recovers well. I hope he can stay right up there. To do that you need luck and you don't need bad luck."

However, the master mentor believes O'Connor was destined for greatness with or without his help.

"Talent usually finds a way. I think people would have seen him, maybe not as early, but the talent he's got would not have been hidden for long but Wes just fast-tracked it."