Ben O’Connor reveals what it means to lead Jayco at 2025 Tour de France: “See how an Aussie goes in an Aussie team”

For the first time in his career, Ben O’Connor will lead an Australian team at the Tour de France. It’s a full-circle moment for the 29-year-old, who joined Team Jayco AlUla in 2025 after several seasons as one of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s most reliable Grand Tour climbers. Now, he gets the GC role at the biggest race in the world.

“The Tour de France is the biggest race in the world, and I’ll be proud to lead the team in the GC role with Team Jayco AlUla,” O’Connor said in a team press release. “Hopefully we can come out the other end in Paris with a really sweet result. I think it will be interesting to see how an Aussie goes in an Aussie team, fighting all the way to Paris for the GC.”

The significance of leading an Australian WorldTeam is not lost on him, and O’Connor made it clear he sees his role this July as a chance to promote Australian cycling on the global stage. “It’s something I’m really looking forward to, something I’m really proud of, and something I also want to promote for cycling in Australia.”

O’Connor finished fourth at the Tour in 2021, but 2024 marked another breakthrough, as he stood on the podium at the Vuelta a España for Decthalon, and then won a silver medal at the world championships in Zurich behind Tadej Pogacar.

O’Connor’s reflections stretch far beyond performance goals. In a revealing team feature, he offered a glimpse into the childhood that shaped him, not through trophies or medals, but through cliffs, fishing rods, and the quiet freedom of suburban Perth.

“We were always on or in the river and that was such a cool thing. It was kind of like your nature escape within the city suburbia,” O’Connor explained. “There were cliffs maybe a kilometre away and me and my mate would always go fishing there after school. There was a golf course just around the corner. There were cricket pitches and nets and tennis courts.”

He grew up outdoors, and it still informs the way he relates to the world, and to the sport. “It was really one of those places that encourages you to go outside. It’s great weather, it’s sunny, windy, I absolutely love it. I can’t think of a city I love more. I think that’s one of the things that helped me to be outside all the time. I never felt like I was couped in.”

His upbringing in Perth was shaped by the decision his parents made years earlier. Originally from Liverpool, they left the UK with almost nothing but the desire to start over.

“My dad did some work in Adelaide. I am pretty sure they wanted to leave. I don’t think that Liverpool in the ‘60s was the place you wanted to grow up,” he said. “My dad always wanted to leave as soon as he could, and my mum was convinced by the idea. They had no money, absolutely nothing but they wanted to get out. They moved when they were 25 or 26, they just had mattresses on the floor in an empty house. It’s pretty crazy how it’s all changed.”

He still feels a distant connection to the UK, even if Australia became home in every meaningful sense. “When I was young, I went a lot, but it’s been a while since I’ve been in Liverpool, 10 years maybe. It’s cool, it’s very different to how it used to be. From when I was first there when I was young compared to my last visit, it was already a big change with the whole Liverpool One situation and the rejuvenation of the docks.”

As a climber, O’Connor lives most of the year in Andorra. It’s good for altitude training, for preparation, and for performance, but it’s far from the ocean. And that, according to him, is something he sorely misses.

“That’s the thing that I miss the most about living in Andorra, the thing I miss most about being in Europe, is the beach,” he said. “I am more of an ocean person than I am a mountains person. It’s not that I like to be at the beach for hours, but I miss the ocean, I miss the sound, the depth, the freshness. I love how it’s always changing.”

It goes beyond nostalgia. It’s about identity. “The mountains are epic and living in Andorra you really have that full seasonal change, but the water is the thing I miss the most about Australia.”

There’s even a culinary thread to it: “I also miss the Aussie seafood, and the variety. You’ve got all the reefs, deep ocean, and sand flats. I could go on a tangent about the fish that I miss. Australian fish is unrivalled in its variety.”

It started the way it starts for many riders: a friend’s dad rode bikes. O’Connor saw the road bike, and wanted one. His parents bought him one, and then he went out alone.

“My mate wouldn’t ride with me, because he said I was too dangerous, and I didn’t have the skills so I went by myself around the Swan River, and that’s how I started,” O’Connor said. “I got better, bit by bit, until eventually he let me ride with him.”

It’s a telling detail. Before the podiums and Grand Tours, O’Connor rode alone. His earliest efforts weren’t guided by a coach or a club, but by interest and persistence. “My parents bought me a bike because I really wanted to start riding. I had a mate whose dad was into riding, and I always envied the look of a road bike. It’s something that I always wanted to do. I used to just like being on a bike, like a mountain bike, and going along from where I was living in Perth.”

Now, O’Connor will fight for a top 10 finish at the Tour with his new team. Can he recapture the form that saw him ride the grand tour of his life at the Vuelta last summer?