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Haig was more involved than he’d originally planned for the 172.8-kilometre stage and found himself in a nine-man front group barely 57 kilometres in, before allowing Bahrain Victorious teammates Mohoric and Fred Wright to bridge across.
Mohoric would go on to battle O’Connor and Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep) to the line, where a photo finish later confirmed the Slovenian’s victory – one Haig felt he duly deserved.
“When I got in the breakaway to begin with, I didn’t really know what I was doing there,” Haig told SBS Sport. “I just followed one move and I ended up in the break.
“I kind of wanted to have an easy day today, going into tomorrow, and then it sort of worked out perfectly with Matej there.
“I’m so happy for him to get the stage win. He’s been looking for it this whole Tour de France. For the team, he’s been amazing.”
O’Connor had no qualms about the nature of his defeat and was rather content with his performance in what felt like more of a “one-day race”.
“I actually felt so much better today so I’m pretty stoked about that,” the AG2R Citroen rider said.
“I was kind of always going to lose in that final. Those two boys were still riding 55 kilometres an hour into the finish and I’m never going to go anywhere.”
Meanwhile, a hamstring injury to Simon Clarke put an unfortunate limit on his output, this after preceding the aforementioned trio with an attack of his own alongside Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny).
The duo’s lead grew to a minute before the Cote d’Ivory, and the Israel Premier Tech rider later confirmed his decision to attack was more strategic than anything offensive.
“It’s always a tricky moment in any stage for guys to come across, so I just followed the wheels and suddenly I found myself again in the front,” Clarke explained to SBS Sport.
“I looked around and saw we had four of us and I knew that if we weren’t in the front, it was going to be on me to start riding again.
“When I saw Victor Campenaerts there, I just thought I’ll jump straight across to him so I don’t have to be on the front riding.
“It was more of an attack of defence than an attack, and I did what I could.”
Elsewhere, it was a much quieter outing for Jai Hindley, who admitted he’s looking forward to reaching Paris after one final attempt to improve his general classification ranking on Stage 20.
“All the GC guys will be all in trying to consolidate or improve their position and I’ll also try do the same,” Hindley said.
“My body hasn’t really been too crash hot, unfortunately, since the crash but that’s the way it goes.
“I’ll still give everything I can tomorrow and see what I can do.”
