Australian general classification contender Ben O’Connor is set to put his focus on the Tour de France for next season as he joins Jayco-AlUla, according to team boss Matt White.
O’Connor’s race programme for 2025 is already taking shape, and he may also target several one-day races such as Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lombardia.
The 28-year-old is making the switch to the Australian team after a successful season for Decathlon-AG2R la Mondiale, in which he finished second at La Vuelta a España and World Championships Road Race and also fourth overall at the Giro d’Italia.
“He’ll build back from the Tour de France, and that race will be the number one target for the summer,” White told Daniel Benson’s Cycling Substack.
“There will probably be a fairly traditional build-up from February and the rest of the spring, and then he’ll have a rest and build-up for the Tour. And then we might even see him backing up at the Vuelta at the end of the season,” he added.
Until now, O’Connor has been seen primarily as a rider for stage races, particularly the Grand Tours given his previous success. This year, he also showed potential for one-day events through his excellent performance to come runner-up to Tadej Pogačar at the UCI Road World Championships in Zürich.
“His coach thought he should concentrate more on one-day races because he put so little into it…so he will be pencilled-in for a few one-day races next year. For example Liege. It’s a race that suits his characteristics. Liege, Lombardia they look good for him,”
O’Connor's excellent performances this year eventuated in him finishing fourth in the final UCI individual rankings. White is excited to have a rider of his calibre on board and hopes that the confidence gained in 2024 will push him on to even greater things in 2025.
“Ben has had an incredible year and was one of the most consistent riders on the planet when you look at his season breakdown…In almost every race he did, he was on the podium. It’s an exciting time for us and the first time we’ve had an Australian GC leader. We’ve had Aussie winners with [Simon] Gerrans, [Caleb] Ewan and [Michael] Matthews, but no GC leader.”
“He’s been able to put the package together more consistently. He’s always shown flashes of brilliance throughout his career and he’s just at a stage now where he’s been able to put it together for big stretches.”
“For Ben going into next year, the confidence that he’s gained this year will only be a real benefit. I know he’s excited to join an Australian team and lead from the front,” White added.
Team planning for 2025 is yet to be completely finalised at Jayco-AlUla, but the framework for their 2025 Grand Tour teams is already in place and will be confirmed over the coming weeks.
O’Connor is set to co-lead the Tour with one of Jayco-AlUla’s sprinters, while the team will also take aim at the General Classification in the Giro d’Italia.
“We’ll run the same model that we’ve had in the past in that we’ll be taking a sprinter to the Tour and Ben. That’s the template we’ve had with Simon [Yates] and Dylan [Groenewegen]. We’ve got a few other guys putting their hand up for the Tour, like Eddie [Dunbar], and Mauro [Schmid], so we’ve got a good group,” White said.
“The devil will be in the detail when it comes to the route for the Giro. We’ll have someone riding GC there. At the moment we’re thinking maybe Chris Harper for GC. It’s a race that suits his characteristics but we’re not going there to win. We’re going there for a top GC result, whether that’s top eight or something around there.”
