Luke O'Connor: Building designer flourishes at Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic

The fuss in his own mind, that is.

On Saturday, O'Connor completed his debut Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic.

In the lead up to arguably Australia's hardest one-day road race, the 47-year-old Tamworthian admitted to being "petrified" of the 228km monster with 3382 metres of climbs, including the daunting Gibraltar Range.

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He had delayed contesting the Grafton to Inverell because he had previously seen it, in a support role, and had observed the reactions of some riders when they summited the Gibraltar Range.

"It's like they've seen a ghost," he said before heading to the startline.

But after finishing 16th of 49 riders in division three, O'Connor immediately began planning for next year's event.

Spending 7hrs and 44.28sec in the saddle left him with "a bit of a stiff back".

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"But the legs are really good," he added.

"I just couldn't match it on the big climb [the Gibraltar Range]," he continued.

"Yeah, probably didn't do enough specialised training on the hills. But apart from that, I was comfortable for most of the race."

It's as if an improved version of Luke O'Connor was forged during that open-air pain festival.

"You pinch yourself, and you think, I've finally done it. You sort of wonder, what was I worried about all the time.

"And you've just gotta think that you can do a lot of things that you probably didn't think you could do."

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