Ben O'Connor: "It would be a dream to finish on the podium"

Ben O'Connor doesn't yet know which will be the main objective at his Vuelta a Espana, but after a big disappointment at the Tour de France, the AG2R Citroën Team rider will be aiming high throughout these three weeks.

“It would be a dream to finish on the podium, that’d be super, super cool. It was nice doing it at the Dauphiné, that was already a big achievement. The next thing, for sure, is to try and do it at a grand tour," O'Connor said in a press conference. The Australian soared to a fourth place at last year's Tour de France, and entered this year's race with similar ambitions.

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However, he abandoned the race early on, having crashed and lost meaningful time in the cobbled stage of the race, the injuries also meant he couldn't continue. “But it doesn’t really matter; it matters for the team but personally, there’s always another chance, another race," he said. "To focus just on the Tour de France can be a bit too much. So it’s nice being here at the Vuelta and far more chill.”

O'Connor hasn't raced since. However, he's confident that he'll reach good form and fight alongside the best. "If a stage win happens, I’ll also be super proud. If one of those two [stage win or GC podium] can pass, I’d be extremely happy.” But just being able to race a grand tour at the front with guys like Primož, Mas and Yatesy would already make me proud".

“For sure, I come here with some GC ambitions, but the race will play out how it does. I’m pretty confident I can be up there with the guys. I’d like to just race how I did in the Dauphiné and every other race this year, that’s the main objective," O'Connor explained. AG2R will mainly be focusing on stage wins, however if the 26-year old can once again make his stage-racing talent visible, the plans may change.

“The objective is always to win, just because you do GC doesn’t write you off from winning a stage. It probably makes it a bit more difficult because you have less freedom and chances. But if you do take a risk, sometimes it pays off," he added.

O'Connor concluded. “I think it suits an open way to approach a hilltop finish in general because there are ten of them; GC guys won’t win them all but you will have to try to win a lot of them. I don’t really want to roll into Madrid finishing 10th having just hung on every day, that’s not how I want to try and race it here,”