Ben O’Connor ready for first big test of 2025 at Paris-Nice: “Training has gone as well as it can for the last couple weeks”

Team Jayco AlUla will line up at Paris-Nice, which begins on March 9th, with their new signing Ben O’Connor leading the team alongside Michael Matthews. O’Connor, who recently completed an altitude training block, will be targeting the general classification, while Matthews continues his preparations for the upcoming Classics season.

The team heading to Paris-Nice includes Luke Durbridge, Michael Hepburn, Kell O’Brien, Mauro Schmid, Max Walscheid, and the Australian duo of O’Connor and Matthews, giving them a well-rounded squad capable of handling the varied terrain the race will offer.

O’Connor has been putting in the hard work at high altitude, ensuring he arrives in top shape for the first major one-week race of the European season. In a team press release, he expressed confidence in his preparation.

“Training has gone as well as it can for the last couple weeks. We’ve been working hard at altitude recently so we should be going into the race with expectations every day. Paris-Nice marks the start of the big one-week races in Europe. It’s always a tricky race that covers pretty much every discipline and the TTT, in particular, is a stage in the race we are all excited for.”

Paris-Nice is often unpredictable, with unfavourable weather conditions, strong winds, and challenging mountain stages playing a crucial role. Sports director Mathew Hayman acknowledged these factors but believes the team is well-prepared to handle them.

“It’s always an exciting race, the weather can have a big influence on the race and we’re looking forward to hitting the ground running. We have Ben O’Connor starting as our leader there along with Michael Matthews, with Ben focusing on GC and Michael preparing for the Classics that are coming up.

“It’s an interesting course, a fairly traditional Paris-Nice with a couple of stages around Paris that are more classics style terrain. Then there’s a team time trial, which we’re very excited about because we have a very strong team for the TTT, and then we go into the mountains for the final stages into Nice.”

The inclusion of a team time trial adds another layer of strategy, and Jayco AlUla appears confident in their ability to perform well in this discipline. With O’Connor aiming for the overall classification, his climbing ability will be put to the test in the final mountain stages, where the race is often decided.

The question is, can the Australian replicate the best form of his career from the end of 2024?