Ben O’Connor comes off an impressive year with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. 4th you Giro2nd of The Return3rd of Zurich Worldsthe Australian finally found himself in 4th place in the UCI rankings at the end of the 2024 season. Despite this, he will leave the French team to join the Jayco-AlUla. Matt Whitesporting director of the Australian team, revealed the objectives of his leader: “O’Connor will be at the 2025 Tour de France and that will be his biggest goal.”
Video – Ben O'Connor, second in La Vuelta this year
“Pogacar and Vingegaard are ahead, but…”
“Ben has had an incredible year. He was one of the most consistent runners on the world stage. Now the challenge we face is to continue at this level.” declared White during an interview with Daniel Benson. “O'Connor will be at the Tour de France 2025 and that will be his biggest goal. We know it will be difficult to fight for victory, because Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard will be there. They are ahead of the other contenders, but you still have to show up at the start of a race to win. That's why it will be important to stay focused on ourselves and what we can do.” he added.
White will, however, not put all the pressure on the shoulders of his new recruit: “We will see what the rankings have in mind for the different races, but races are races and anything can always happen. But for the Tour, we will not place all our expectations on Ben's shoulders. As in the past, we will also go for sprints, probably with Dylan Gronewegen. In addition, for the climbs, O'Connor should have Mauro Schmid and Eddie Dunbar at his side.
