Giro d'Italia podium "within my capabilities" insists optimistic Ben O'Connor

With the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team announcing their lineup for the first Grand Tour of 2024, GC hope Ben O'Connor is confirmed for a first Giro d'Italia showing since 2020 and the Australian is starting full of optimism.

“I would love to do that. That would be, as a personal ambition, something to look towards because it’s something that I think is attainable," O'Connor tells GCN about his desire to secure a first Grand Tour podium of his career over the next few weeks. "I think it is within my capabilities. You just need to keep that consistency up, that’s the main aim of the game in the end: not making errors and staying consistent.”

Having already finished runner-up at the UAE Tour and the Tour of the Alps this year, O'Connor certainly senses an opportunity to crack the podium at the Giro d'Italia. “I have wanted to do the Giro again for quite a while and obviously being on our team, it is obligatory for me to do the Tour," he says. "But it’s been nice to have an opening and spread a bit more of that chance, because Felix Gall has really improved as a rider himself. He can get that chance in the Tour and I can get my personal chance at the Giro. It is somewhere I have always believed I can perform well in, it is a race that really suits me well.”

“Physically, I think it’s there, it just comes down to all the other tickets. You know how difficult it can be, you can look at Primoz Roglic at the Tour. He has tried multiple times and it just hasn’t worked out yet there for him, whilst it’s worked out for Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. It can be a fickle business sometimes. Grand Tours always expose you and your weaknesses, so if you can just minimise that, that’s your ticket in," the 28-year-old concludes. “I’m keen to go back, I’ll get my own opportunity and I have made a clear decision over wanting to do it.”