"As long as you don’t feel like you've overdone yourself" - Ben O'Connor shakes off Tour of the Alps results and focuses on Giro d'Italia

Ben O'Connor has had a modest 2025 season, with a Tour de France win standing as its sole highlight. In 2026 the Team Jayco AlUla leader wants to perform once again in the Grand Tours and is currently using the Tour of the Alps as his final step towards the Giro d'Italia.

The Australian goes into stage 4 as 12th in the overall classification, in a field that is modest, where Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe and INEOS Grenadiers are engaged in the fight for the overall win. This comes after stage 2, the only one thus far that has created gaps. It wasn't the type of day which he is a fan of, with only one big effort on the day - coinciding with the final climb to Val Martello.

“It was just really hard at the bottom, and I just paced it poorly, to be honest,” O'Connor shared with Domestique at the start of stage 3. "I didn’t need to follow as long as I did, because everyone was pretty blown already by halfway. It was just stupid riding on my behalf, to be honest. I didn’t deserve to finish where I did, but at the same time I did, because I was stupid enough to follow so long.”

“Yesterday was quite easy until the final climb. Then it was pretty much three minutes full, and you sit at pretty much threshold the rest of the way. It was a bit of an annoying one, but I just wiped off my face and started looking to the rest of the week.”

On the third stage there wasn't GC action on the climbs, and O'Connor was one of the few who attacked the finale into Arco, trying to capture his first win since last year's Tour. It didn't prove successful, as he was followed by Tom Pidcock, who would later on sprint to the stage win.

But it's the mountains that O'Connor is looking towards. “I’m really excited for the next couple of days to see actually whereabouts I’m lying. Because if it’s a step up from Catalunya, then you’re still on that forward foot, and that means you’re going to be nice and ready for May. As long as you don’t feel like you've overdone yourself by the time you get to the Giro, that’s the main thing.”

Managing a Grand Tour preparation is not easy and requires not only a lot of work to develop and reach your best form, but at the same time make sure you don't do too much of either too early on. That can ultimately lead to burnout or extra fatigue during the Grand Tour, whilst the goal is to arrive with the perfect mix of good form and both physical and mental freshness.

The balance wasn't, he admits, perfect, after he began this season at the Tour Down Under. “I think the initial approach into Down Under was more intense and that’s kind of why I suffered a little bit, from the kickback to that. The planning has since been a bit more similar to 2024, and we’ve reverted a bit more to that kind of way of training, and I feel like I’m in a good spot.

The Australian raced a full Australian summer and then lacked the legs at rhe UAE Tour, whilst at the Volta a Catalunya he rode to 13th in the overall classification. he is looking to take a step up from the spring period: “I mean, I always would like to do better. Even in 2024, I wish I’d won UAE and I wish I’d won Tour of the Alps, so you're always searching for the next best thing.”

With the Giro starting in the space of two weeks, the pressure is on to be at the start with reasons to have high ambitions. “The main aim right now is to make sure I actually feel good after kind of blowing a little bit and having a bit of a reset. The main aim is to make sure I’m good for the Grand Tour, which is where my best results have come in my career so far," he concluded.