Again when he was slicing his enamel as a racer in Western Australia, Ben O’Connor mentioned he recollects crossing paths with Luke Durbridge, the longstanding professional who’s quickly to be his teammate at Jayco-AIUIa. In all probability one of the simplest ways to explain the younger O’Connor’s response when he noticed ‘Turbo-Durbo’ was being star-struck.
“I keep in mind I used to be driving spherical Perth and seeing Durbridge and going – Oh my God! Durbo! GreenEdge!” O’Connor instructed reporters throughout an interview at a latest coaching camp in Spain along with his new squad.
“So think about if it had been Cadel” – Evans, the Tour de France champion in 2011, who by no means raced for his residence Australian squad throughout his profession – “and he’d been in GreenEdge. That may have been large, as a result of he’d gained the Tour.
“I believe as a youthful bicycle owner, to have that attract for the Aussie group could be particular, as a result of while you’re youthful, you look as much as these guys, you wish to be like them. So it is cool for Aussie biking.”
‘It’ in fact, is O’Connor’s imminent transfer to Jayco-AIUIa their high Grand Tour chief, an area left vacant by the departing Nice Britain’s Simon Yates and beginning on January 1, 2025. O’Connor is already at coaching camp in Spain along with his new squad, getting familiarized and having fun with an environment which, in contrast to his earlier group, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, totally connects along with his Australian roots.
O’Connor is at pains to stress that he has nothing however reward for his former French group, the place in 2024 he loved his finest season up to now. He even gently however firmly rebuts one journalist’s suggestion that he’ll have much less unfavorable vitality to deal with at Jayco-AIUIa by saying, “No, as a result of the entire thing about ‘French negativity’ is not true.”
2024 Vuelta a España: Ben O’Connor throughout his 13 phases as race chief (Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
In addition to clearly wanting ahead to being the first-ever Australian Grand Tour chief for Jayco-AIUIa of their 12-year historical past, and perhaps inspiring some future generations of racers, come 2025, albeit with caveats, O’Connor can also be decided to carry out not less than in addition to he did in his stand-out 2024 season. As he places it: “I do know there’s extra I can do.”
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“I in all probability will not be within the lead of the Vuelta for 2 weeks once more, that is for positive,” O’Connor says with fun, referring to his prolonged spell on the high of the Spanish Grand Tour GC final September, which culminated with second total in Madrid.
“However I can get shut. Whether or not it’s the finest 12 months of my life in biking phrases, I am not sure, however I can carry out at this degree once more, that is for positive, and I can carry out higher as a result of I do know there’s extra I can do.
“Outcomes are fickle, although, you are able to do your finest issues and have it not work out. It could actually simply be about intelligence, being sensible. It is like on the [2024] Worlds, proper? I wasn’t the second strongest man there within the race, I used to be sensible, however I wasn’t second strongest. However I got here away with a silver medal.”
With regards to efficiency versus outcomes, he agrees that “you’ll be able to’t correlate that in any respect”.
By the use of instance, he cites the 2024 Giro d’Italia the place he rode to fourth total. “I used to be sick as a canine within the closing week, I hated that week, it sucked, aside from Bassano [stage 20] the place I began to really feel higher once more.
“You may have a look at that and go: that was a giant missed alternative as a result of I had the possibility there to be on the rostrum however I could not do it as a result of I used to be sick. That is the way in which it’s, however what else are you able to do? Do not cry about it.”
It was an identical story on the 2024 UAE Tour the place he mentioned he may have gained outright however as a substitute needed to accept second behind Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Destny).
“Van Eetvelt did an excellent trip, however I additionally in all probability did not do one of the best one. These two issues you’ll be able to say: hey, I received a podium in two WorldTour stage races, however I did not win them, that did not occur.
“So I do know that for subsequent 12 months, it is one thing I can enhance on. However you’ll be able to’t return and alter time, both.”
But for all O’Connor is aware of he has but to achieve his peak, even when he attains and maintains the next efficiency degree in 2025 he’s real looking about his probabilities of taking up Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Group Emirates). That mentioned, he isn’t going to change races simply to overlook out on crossing swords with the highest two Grand Tour racers of his period, both.
“That is out of attain, they’re too good,” he says about his probabilities of beating both the Slovenian or Dane. “You may be shut on sure days however I am not that bodily gifted.
“I suppose I may do the Giro and Vuelta yearly, and keep away from the Tour” – thereby avoiding Vingegaard and Pogačar not less than in a single Grand Tour – “however the Tour is the head, you wish to be there.
“Sports activities are stuffed with greats, that is half and parcel of it and you’ll’t win the whole lot, you’ll be able to’t keep away from it, ‘cos that is skilled sport. You simply need to get on and cope with it.”
Ben O’Connor takes his first win of 2024 at Vuelta a Murcia (Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
One-day racing – when?
The Grand Excursions and stage racing are very a lot O’Connor’s bread and butter, and he is but to disclose his race programme for 2025 past the Tour de France, saying in Spain that it’s nonetheless below wraps.
However when he talks to journalists in a resort in Alicante, it so occurs that he’s barely an hour’s drive away from the place he took his first win of the season, the one-day Vuelta a Murcia, due to a gutsy late solo break. Then whereas that was a wonderful begin to the 12 months and helped him hit the bottom operating, O’Connor’s closing 2024 race on the Street World Championships additionally noticed him end as ‘first of the mortals’ in a one-day occasion, claiming silver behind a Pogačar on the rampage.
These outcomes are hardly to be sniffed at, but it surely’s curious that one-day racing hasn’t featured closely in O’Connor’s profession up to now. His solely different win in that specialty got here when he outgunned breakaway specialist Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) within the low-key Tour du Jura in France again in 2022. There may be additionally a seventh place within the GP Montreal in 2023 and some different high 15 finishes within the Italian semi-Classics knocking round in his palmares.
So though his angle in the direction of the Ardennes Classics would possibly politely be described as blended, O’Connor recognises that one-day racing does have its enchantment for him, and thus potential for being a higher precedence sooner or later.
“Murcia was nice enjoyable – I cherished that, that was such a superb race to do. There wasn’t the stress of positioning, and the concern, the massive expectations: it was my first race and also you simply received to hit it.
“One-day racing is one thing my now former coach all the time believed I must be doing extra of, but it surely simply by no means aligned with what we had been doing. It’s important to like that form of racing and in terms of Amstel, Fleche and Liège – it isn’t like I really feel ‘I can not wait for this.’
“The World Championship is a little bit completely different. It is a hell of a vibe with the nationwide equipment and with the Aussie boys, that is actually a particular factor.
“One factor I do like about one-day racing is that you need to lay it on the road, which is cool. Stage races – you’ll be able to wait to be one of the best man over time, be it in a time trial, a mountain high or within the win. However a one-day race you need to seek for it, you need to be considerably aggressive sooner or later, and that is a cool technique to race.
“However total, one-day racing is a kettle of fish there that is able to open and attempt to exploit, so I suppose you are proper,” he concludes. “It is one thing I ought to do extra of.”
Jayco-AIUIa in full battle within the group time trial at 2024 Paris-Good (Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Group spirit
Whether or not one-day racing finally ends up that includes bigger or smaller on O’Connor’s hit record very a lot stays to be seen. However for now, each O’Connor and Jayco-AIUIa start working collectively to see how they mix within the stage racing enviornment.
O’Connor himself has greater than proved his price in that specialty up to now, and the identical goes for his new group, so it must be a promising match. The Australian squad shouldn’t be the most important hitter within the Grand Tour battles, however O’Connor is assured they will be capable to again him as a lot as he wants, and he factors to the way in which that Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale stepped to the plate within the Vuelta as the way in which to go.
“Though you may not have a super-star group, you’ll be able to management a race, so we had been capable of management the Vuelta super-well,” he says. “It is not like Decathlon was a group stuffed with superstars, however the boys had been good, they don’t seem to be nobodies, both.
“You have a look at the UAE group within the Vuelta this 12 months – it was one thing else in comparison with what we have now. However our boys had been among the strongest guys within the race, too, as a result of that they had a set job, a set function and so they had been capable of do it.
“It doesn’t matter what the situation, in the event you’re very clear about what you are able to do, the entire group can step as much as that mark.
“And Jayco’s been a group that is been on the entrance quite a bit, too [Simon] Yates has gained WorldTour stage races, they’ve carried out massive sprints with Dylan [Groenwegen] and Caleb [Ewan], they’ve gained massive races with Gero’ [Simon Gerrans]. They know what to do. I do not assume there’s something to be apprehensive about that rating.”
Nor can it’s forgotten that simply because it’s vastly necessary for O’Connor to be the primary Australian Grand Tour chief of Jayco-AIUIa, that feeling is one thing of a two-way avenue. For his fellow countrymen on the squad specifically, and for the group normally too, the possibility for them to assist O’Connor battle for GC is definitely vastly motivating as effectively.
And in the event that they, like O’Connor, will help encourage some aspiring younger Australian racers to attempt to impression that bit extra within the sport – similar to Durbridge did with O’Connor again within the day – then a lot the higher.
