“Can be close on certain days, but I’m not that physically talented” - Ben O'Connor honest about potentially challenging Pogacar & Vingegaard

Ben O'Connor had the best season of his career in 2024, securing a 4th on GC at the Giro d'Italia, 2nd at the Vuelta a Espana and a second place at the World Championship in Zurich. As he moves to Team Jayco AlUla for 2025, a return to the Tour de France awaits for the Aussie.

“Results are fickle. You can always do your best things and have it not work out. It [good results] can be about intelligence, being smart. Look at the Worlds: I wasn’t the second-strongest guy in the race, but I was smart and I came away with a silver medal. That’s just cycling,” O'Connor says modestly about his season to Rouleur.

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Despite having placed 4th overall at the Tour de France in 2021, O'Connor is realistic about his Maillot Jaune goals, given the immense class of the likes of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. “No, that’s out of reach, they’re too good,” he assesses honestly. “You can be close [to them] for sure on certain days but I’m not that physically talented.”

In his final year at the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team, O'Connor made his mark with the aforementioned standout results. “Whether it is the best year of my life in cycling terms, I’m not really sure, but I can perform like this next year for sure. There’s no doubting that,” he states. “What makes me confident? For example, in the Giro I was sick as a dog the final week – I absolutely hated it, bar [the stage 20] to Grappa where I felt human again. So something like that you can look at it and say that was a big missed opportunity because I had it there to be on the podium but couldn’t do it."

“There were very few things that went wrong, but there were definitely a few things I know I can improve, so that’s always fun to rack your head around even though it was such a success," the Aussie adds. "You think you should be over the moon, but you know there are always better performances and results there, or even better ways you could handle yourself in situations.”

As such, heading into 2025 as the Australian leader of an Australian team, O'Connor is determined to make his mark once again. “They’ve had Esteban Chaves, both Yates twins, but they’ve never had an Aussie GC guy,” he concludes. “You’re not going to blow your horn but you’re one of the better riders in Australian cycling so to be part of an Aussie team and to be a leader on that team is really cool.”

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