After golden season, Ben O'Connor will return to Tour de France in 2025: "If I could also include the Giro or the Vuelta, that wouldn't be a problem"

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale gave Ben O'Connor a leadership position in a foreign environment and it has ended in the best possible way. Literally on the Top5 of the UCI rankings, the Australian has experienced a massive year and is already thinking about the Tour de France in 2025.

"The four years at Decathlon were a completely new experience, but it will be special to be part of a team from my own country. It gives me a lot of reassurance, because even though I live thousands of kilometres away from our Australia, I know I will feel at home here. Being the leader of Jayco AlUla in a Grand Tour will be a huge motivation to raise the bar again," O'Connor said in an interview with Bici.Pro. "I hope to be able to repeat what I did this year."

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What he did this year was a second place at the UAE Tour, fifth at Tirreno-Adriatico, second at the Tour of the Alps and then fourth at the Giro d'Italia to conclude a very consistent first half of the season. "Fourth place in the Giro gave me a feeling of incompleteness, because I knew I could do more, just like when I lost the leader's jersey by just two seconds in the UAE Tour."

After some rest he prepared for the Vuelta a España which eventually became the highlight of his season. He featured in a breakaway on the opening week and benefited from the internal battle between Primoz Roglic and his rivals. The Slovenian did end up then taking the overall victory but the Australian was also satisfied, having spent almost two weeks in the red jersey. "Second place in the Vuelta really felt like a victory to me".

"It was crazy to wear an iconic shirt like the red one. You see others do it in the Grand Tours and you wonder a thousand times how that feels. Then it's your turn and it's incredible, a mix of pride and the realization of being a winner. There's nothing better and if you don't get distracted by the attention, it's an extra boost". It eventually ended up being a second place in Madrid, but it was surprisingly not his final big result of the year.

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At the World Championships he showed his best legs and ended up resisting the aggressive racing that took place behind Tadej Pogacar. In the final kilometers he was still very much within his limits and launched an attack that saw him net the silver medal. "My coach at Decathlon kept telling me to do more one-day races because they suit my characteristics, so I think he's proud now."

"Maybe because I arrived at the World Championships without too many expectations, not knowing if I would finish the race, let alone if I would finish on the podium. It was a nice surprise because I was so tired after the Vuelta that I didn't even do the World Championship time trial, so I arrived rested for the road race".

Ben O'Connor at the 2024 World Championships. @Sirotti

On Pogacar, he commented: "Even though I was actually right behind him when he left. I thought for a moment and wondered if I should follow him. I tried and I wasn't far off. He's from another planet, so I was happy that I took the opportunity to get a lead on the others, because any of the chasers could have finished second or third".

Next year he will lead Team Jayco AlUla as the leader for the Grand Tours and he has already made a decision: "Everything has yet to be decided, but I would like to return to the Tour de France. If I could also include the Giro or the Vuelta, that wouldn't be a problem, but you don't necessarily have to ride two Grand Tours. I've always liked the Giro-Vuelta combination, but I'm not sure about the Tour-Vuelta combination yet. The Giro-Tour combination, on the other hand, could work well, because the Giro is the big one that might suit my characteristics best," he concluded.

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Decathlon AG2R send heartfelt goodbye to "one of the top 5 riders in the peloton" Ben O'Connor