Ben O'Connor makes his debut with Jayco AlUla at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in Spain on Wednesday, taking on João Almeida and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and fellow Australian Jai Hindley (Reb Bill-Bora-Hansgrohe).
The five-day Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana begins with a 34.3km team time trial on Wednesday and ends on Sunday with a stage for the sprinters in Valencia. The overall classification will be decided on stage 2 to Benifato and stage 3 to Alpuente. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) are expected to contest any sprint finishes.
O'Connor said he was looking for the 'first big result of the season', with Jayco AlUla also selecting Jasha Sütterlin, Bob Donaldson, Jelte Krijnsen and the experienced Michael Hepburn and Chris Juul-Jensen.
"It will be my first time at the Volta Comunitat Valenciana but above all, it's my first race with my new team," O'Connor said.
"Since I started my professional career, I always knew that, sooner or later, I would be part of the GreenEdge family. For us Australian riders, Team Jayco AlUla remains the reference team and I am very proud to be here.
"My goal is to give my best and get the first big result of the season. We have a very competitive team, which can do well at the TTT and then it will be up to me to be strong on the many climbs of the Spanish race."
Jayco AlUla missed out at the Tour Down Under but Mauro Schmid made amends by winning Sunday's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
O'Connor was one of the best stage race riders of 2024, finishing second at the UAE Tour, fourth at the Giro d'Italia and then second at the Vuelta a España after spending two weeks in the leader's jersey. He ended the year with second behind Tadej Pogačar at the UCI Road World Championships.
O'Connor, fourth in the 2021 Tour de France, will lead Jayco AlUla in the Grand Tour in July.
"I'm definitely going to go back to the Tour though, that's for sure. That's probably the main aim, I'd love to give that race another crack and see how it ends up," he told Cyclingnews during the winter.
"To be an Aussie GC guy, going to the Tour with an Aussie team; I don't know if they've really had that before," said O'Connor.
"I think that's an exciting thing for Aussie cycling, to be honest."
O'Connor spent the winter at his European base in Andorra, enjoying time with his baby daughter Josephine, who was born in the summer and training with his new teammates.
"It's early season of course but we still have ambitions here. It's the first race for Ben O'Connor with the team and his preparation has so far gone all to plan," directeur sportif David McPartland said.
"We will aim to do a good race with him in the GC. First, we have the super important TTT on stage one. This will set the scene for the following stages and how the race unfolds.
"The week overall is a solid one with three of the five stages comprising more than 3,000m of climbing. There is also the last stage and potentially one of the lighter mountain stages where we may see a reduced bunch sprint and for that, we have another new member in Jelte Krijnsen for a result."
