"I hope to reach my 2024 level, I still have it in me": Ben O’Connor looks to leave the 2025 season far behind
Cycling
The 2026 season is about to begin. More precisely, it will happen in less than two weeks with the first stage of Tour Down Under set for Tuesday, January 20. The Australian WorldTour race is crucial for Jayco AlUla as the home team, and therefore also for Ben O'Connor, the country’s leading star. There he will hope to start making amends for a very difficult 2025 season, where despite his stage win at the Tour de France, he didn't live up to the expectations set in 2024.
On the cusp of a new season, Ben O’Connor approaches 2026 with a clear idea: he needs to return to the level he showed in 2024 and, above all, rediscover the mindset that drove him then. He does not sugarcoat, he does not gloss over last year and he does not hide his frustration in an interview with CyclingNews.
"There’s no need to sweeten it," he says when comparing 2025 with his standout 2024. "It’s certainly not the same, that’s very clear."
The 2024 season had been outstanding for O'Connor: second at the Vuelta a España, including a stage win, and a silver medal at the World Championships in Zurich, only behind Tadej Pogačar. However, almost nothing in 2025 went as expected.
A stage not enough to turn the year around
A win on stage 18 of the Tour de France was his only major success of the year. A crash wrecked his GC hopes before the end of stage 1. He finished the Tour 11th, far from his projection. And the Vuelta also ended early for O'Connor due to another crash.
Looking back, he salvages one positive: “The stage win at the Tour was the moment that reminded me you can always turn a race around when things go wrong."
Ben O'Connor delivered his standout win of the season at the 2025 Tour de France
However the bottom of the problem dated way back in the year
A prolonged health issue marked his first half of the year. He carried it for too long. And that’s where the self-critique began. "[The illness] lingered for a long time and I didn’t get over it until pretty much the Tour de Suisse," he explains. He admits he made the mistake of resisting a pause: "It’s surprising how much not applying a bit of flexibility can finish you off." He sums up his year in one word: "annoying."
And he admits a dangerous tendency: trying to fix everything by pushing harder. "Sometimes it’s better to just step away, let the body reset and then come back."
Knowing he had the level and that it never fully appeared exasperated him: "I wish I could reach the same level [as 2024], I know I’ve got it. It just never happened… and that’s the most frustrating thing. You can’t copy and paste."
Anger as fuel
O’Connor does not hide the emotional hit of 2025. "I was furious. It’s really depressing," he admits. "You get angry when things get complicated without being your fault… knowing you can still perform, that the structure was there, and you just waste it."
With his GC dream broken, he switched mindset at the Tour and hunted breakaways. "It’s by far the most fun way to race the Tour," he says. Fighting for GC, he adds, "is actually a drag" because "it’s fantastic… until it isn’t."
That’s why, when he speaks now about expectations and approach, he puts it like this: "Tackling things tooth and nail, and just being angry."
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
claps 1visitors 1
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- It’s off-season mate, I’m bored and fed up with the mediocrity of people unwilling to provoke change when they admit things aren’t right. What have you done lately to make anyone realise you won’t put up with things? What conversation, are you dictating to me which part of the incident I have to be interested in or telling me other parts are taboo? That’s what I guess the UCI would really like, let them moan, let it blow over for them pass on to the next thing, let’s keep the status quo, let’s try our best not reviewing or revealing anything about decision-making just like every time before, they’re used to it by now so we can take the risk they’ll never give us grief.Jumpyjohn09-11-2026
- As far as CUTD headlines go this is far from the worst. It helps if you look at it twice and realise it’s a list of descriptions from distinct events. You can’t deny the reality of being a rival if you consider the picture immediately below, frontrunner is unfortunate but I’m guessing this time it’s more a linguistic failure than a clickbaiting opportunity. Just a reminder that this is not an anglo website, for those who find it too tedious to interpret text to get the gist of things which are rarely of great importance (as opposed to eg purposely biaised DOJ extradition translations in order to achieve hidden agendas), there are plenty of anglo cycling websites google can suggest.Jumpyjohn09-11-2026
- Ah, finally someone willing to be a bit proactive.Jumpyjohn09-11-2026
- So? Do you understand the way instructions, decisions and authority work? Do you think in a football match if after a match (or even after play has gone on) a player tells the referee he did touch the ball with his hands when the referee didn’t award opponents a penalty that they will revise the score or force a replay? You really don’t get my point, it’s not against the rider but everyone here is so emotional for her they can’t get back to an issue which needs resolving for the future and the first step (or maybe second) is to try to understand how and why it happens, none of you have contributed in the least to that. All everyone is interested in is letting everyone know they agree how unjust it was, not even sure anyone thinks that could affect anything.Jumpyjohn09-11-2026
- Shouldn’t you be in MOUrning?Jumpyjohn09-11-2026
- Maybe you don’t like it and that’s fine, we all have different sensibilities and topics that touch us, but as you try to show me, it doesn’t hurt to reflect and compare ourselves to others behaving similarly. What precisely is the difference between a sports fan interested in every detail of his/her hero’s life and a celeb fan having the same hobby? It’s far more interesting to learn and think about how and why (which) people do things than reading about what they are actually doing. And just to add another level, maybe you’ll agree we don’t use the same value system for everyone, we discriminate in an enormous number of systematic ways. For example, when is the last time you saw a discussion arguing about the achievements of two politicians to compare or for that matter two business leaders apart from the comparison of hypothetical wealth accumulated? Perhaps you misunderstood the intention?Jumpyjohn09-11-2026
- I don’t think I know what’s beneath the surface but I am willing to think about it, discuss it, compare it to a known past, extrapolate to a potential future and ask/try to find out truth or even take action within my powers (boycotting something or someone is within EVERY person’s reach). If you think your attitude has more chance of changing a result, a process, a system or an institution or it just makes you feel good, keep at it but to me it looks like you’ve already given up before trying.Jumpyjohn09-11-2026
- All journalists should start asking the UCI uncomfortable questions, sending inquiries about the interpretation of the rules and the justification of the results. This is the only way to change anything.averagecyclist09-11-2026
- OFF TOPIC: OK, don't get mad with me... I have some very important news, something that can't be overlooked, something that can't be ignored!!! In the new documentary Anatomy of a G.O.A.T. (released in November 2026), legendary Belgian cyclist EDDY MERCKX spoke about TADEJ POGAČAR: Merckx: “He has revived a style of cycling that we had almost forgotten. He is now better than me.” Key statements by Merckx about Pogačar in 2026: - Acknowledging his superiority: This time, Merckx openly admitted, without any subsequent backtracking or reservations, that Pogačar had surpassed him and was now above him. This contrasts with 2024, when he quickly softened his remarks about Pogačar being faster. - The possibility of a historic triple (Giro, Tour and Vuelta): During the July Tour de France (where Pogi claimed his fifth title), Merckx stated that Pogi was the only cyclist in history capable of winning all three Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España) in a single season, provided the conditions were right and he had sufficient team support. - Lack of serious competition: Merckx emphasised that Pogačar has no real rivals in the mountains since 2024, thanks to his extraordinary climbing ability and the fact that he continues to improve despite still being under 28 (he turned 28 in autumn 2026). - Praise for his racing style: Merckx highlighted how Pogačar is bringing back the aggressive, uncompromising spirit of cycling's golden era, when races were not merely about calculated stages and tactical conservatism, but about attacking from long distances. PS: Now, this is real important cycling news. This is not "boring" ... this is called making real history, not BS history. Capish?PogiSloFans09-11-2026
- how else is there to look at things? we are responding to words and pictures, we are not there. your long winded replies make zero sense to anyone. pretty much everyone but you says the same thing. MS was robbed. somehow you think you're so smart to dig beneath the surface and discover something no one else, including the opposing coach and cyclist, saw. lol. you are a tool.mij09-11-2026
Loading
Write a comment