{"id":8240,"date":"2025-07-02T17:46:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T15:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=8240"},"modified":"2025-07-07T17:55:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T15:55:36","slug":"road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Road to the Tour: Ben O\u2019Connor Looks to Crack the Tour de France Top 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is Ben O\u2019Connor a potential Tour de France top 5 contender? Because that is the goal the 29-year-old Australian and his Jayco AlUla team have set for this year. It sounds like a modest objective, but in fact it\u2019s quite ambitious given the opposition.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Assuming that the four favorites \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma \u2013 Lease a Bike), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d (Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe) \u2013 all ride up to their capabilities, they will almost certainly take the top four spots of the GC. That will make the battle for fifth very intense as it will be targeted by at least a dozen riders.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for O\u2019Connor, Richard Carapaz (EF Education\u2013EasyPost) will not be among them as he will not be riding in the Tour due to illness. However, Carlos Rodr\u00edguez (INEOS Grenadiers) finished fourth in the 2023 Tour and has had a decent spring, with top 10 finishes in three stage races. Lidl-Trek\u2019s Mattias Skjelmose has had an excellent spring campaign, which included a shock victory in the Amstel Gold Race over Poga\u010dar, Evenepoel and Wout van Aert (Visma\u2013Lease a Bike).<\/p>\n

Both he and Rodr\u00edguez are only 24 and just coming into their own. And there are some very talented support riders who seem strong enough to crack the top 5, such as Poga\u010dar\u2019s lieutenant Jo\u00e3o Almeida, Rogli\u010d\u2019s main man Florian Lipowitz or Visma powerhouse Matteo Jorgenson. All three are capable of both riding support and finishing in the top 10 of numerous stages.<\/p>\n

Add to that the fact that the Tour has not been very kind to O\u2019Connor. To be fair, he has only ridden it three times in his 8+-year career, with a fourth-place finish on his first attempt, in 2021, being his best result. But the competition at this year\u2019s Tour is significantly tougher than it was in 2021. On the other hand, he is a better rider than he was four years ago, has finished in the GC top five in each of the three Grand Tour races, and finished second, behind Rogli\u010d, at last season\u2019s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

\"La<\/a>
Ben O’Connor finished second at the 2024 La Vuelta. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But anyone who saw that race knows what O\u2019Connor\u2019s problem is: he is not a great climber. He had a lead of almost 5 minutes over Rogli\u010d \u00a0after stage 6, but the Slovenian took time back on nearly all the climbing stages. O\u2019Connor is a very good climber, but he isn\u2019t explosive and is often dropped when the pace heats up on a steep climb. He then proceeds at his own rhythm and needs the leaders to slow down to get back in the mix.<\/p>\n

And he has had an unimpressive spring, with no victories and no top 5 GC finishes in any of the stage races he rode. His best finishes were actually in the ITTs, where he registered two second places. In his final prep race, the Tour de Suisse, O\u2019Connor finished seventh, 5:08 behind the winner, Almeida, and also behind two other Tour rivals, Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).<\/p>\n

But the Aussie remains confident. \u201cWe have a really versatile team and I\u2019ve performed well in Grand Tours in the past so I\u2019ll do everything I can to get back to the top five,\u201d O\u2019Connor was quoted as saying on the team\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe route is a race of two halves,\u201d he went on to say. \u201cYou have northern France with some extremely punchy stages, and then pretty much, from stage 10 onwards, all of the climbs are 30 minutes to one hour long. There are some really big cols and passes, so I think that\u2019s where I will be enjoying the race a lot more. They\u2019re the kind of mountain stages I really prefer. For me, it\u2019ll be about getting through the first half and then executing in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he neglected to say was that the Tour has five summit finishes, with the two toughest \u2013 the HC climbs to Courchevel (26.5km @ 6.4%) and Plagne (19.3km @ 7.2%) \u2013 coming on stages 18 and 19 respectively. That is where the race for fifth place in the GC will probably be decided, and I don\u2019t see O\u2019Connor being with the other GC contenders at those finishes. His best bet would seem to be to join a breakaway and then use that group as a platform to snatch a stage win. But in order to be allowed to join a breakaway, he would need to be no threat in the standings to Poga\u010dar, Rogli\u010d and the other main contenders.<\/p>\n

That will be his and Jayco AlUla\u2019s dilemma: go all out for the top 5 or try to win one or two climbing stages as consolation. Perhaps the race will decide, because there are a number of punchy, Classics-type stages in the first week that could put several GC contenders under pressure. No doubt to prepare for that aspect of the Tour, O\u2019Connor rode in three spring Classics this year, and the results were middling but encouraging. He abandoned the Amstel Gold Race, finished 37th in La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne and 44th in Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge, but less than 1:30 behind Poga\u010dar in both races.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not bad and suggests that O\u2019Connor will hold his own in the first week. Still, while the Tour GC podium is pretty easy to handicap this year, predicting how he will fare is really impossible. So I asked AI. Here is what Copilot had to say: \u201cWhile he didn\u2019t look particularly sharp at the recent Tour of Switzerland, he\u2019s banking on peaking at the right time. If everything aligns \u2013 form, team support, and race dynamics \u2013 he could very well be in the mix for a top-five or even podium finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interesting. But \u201ceverything\u201d rarely \u201caligns\u201d in the Tour de France. O\u2019Connor may have to contend himself with a top 10 finish or one or two stage wins. Which isn\u2019t bad at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is Ben O\u2019Connor a potential Tour de France top 5 contender? Because that is the goal the 29-year-old Australian and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":8270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-8240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-latest"],"yoast_head":"\nBen O\u2019Connor Looks to Crack the Tour de France Top 5<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Road to the Tour: Ben O\u2019Connor Looks to Crack the Tour de France Top 5\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is Ben O\u2019Connor a potential Tour de France top 5 contender? Because that is the goal the 29-year-old Australian and […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-02T15:46:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-07T15:55:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2025\/07\/Ben-O39Connor-profimedia-0903227230-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hettie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/\",\"name\":\"Ben O\u2019Connor Looks to Crack the Tour de France Top 5\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2025\/07\/Ben-O39Connor-profimedia-0903227230-CVR.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-02T15:46:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-07T15:55:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/a58d0e261e2851d32c04ca4395fc8c19\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2025\/07\/Ben-O39Connor-profimedia-0903227230-CVR.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2025\/07\/Ben-O39Connor-profimedia-0903227230-CVR.webp\",\"width\":990,\"height\":660,\"caption\":\"Ben O'Connor\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda WeLoveCycling - United Kingdom\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/a58d0e261e2851d32c04ca4395fc8c19\",\"name\":\"hettie\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/19084731f07a409b63389e027895fb3dd559baf357989497b89ac21b1807677a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/19084731f07a409b63389e027895fb3dd559baf357989497b89ac21b1807677a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"hettie\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/author\/hettie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ben O\u2019Connor Looks to Crack the Tour de France Top 5","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Road to the Tour: Ben O\u2019Connor Looks to Crack the Tour de France Top 5","og_description":"Is Ben O\u2019Connor a potential Tour de France top 5 contender? Because that is the goal the 29-year-old Australian and […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom","article_published_time":"2025-07-02T15:46:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-07T15:55:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":990,"height":660,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2025\/07\/Ben-O39Connor-profimedia-0903227230-CVR.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"hettie","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Siegfried Mortkowitz","Est. reading time":"3"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/","name":"Ben O\u2019Connor Looks to Crack the Tour de France Top 5","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2025\/07\/Ben-O39Connor-profimedia-0903227230-CVR.webp","datePublished":"2025-07-02T15:46:14+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-07T15:55:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/a58d0e261e2851d32c04ca4395fc8c19"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/07\/02\/road-to-the-tour-ben-oconnor-looks-to-crack-the-tour-de-france-top-5\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2025\/07\/Ben-O39Connor-profimedia-0903227230-CVR.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2025\/07\/Ben-O39Connor-profimedia-0903227230-CVR.webp","width":990,"height":660,"caption":"Ben O'Connor"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom","description":"\u0160koda WeLoveCycling - United Kingdom","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/a58d0e261e2851d32c04ca4395fc8c19","name":"hettie","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/19084731f07a409b63389e027895fb3dd559baf357989497b89ac21b1807677a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/19084731f07a409b63389e027895fb3dd559baf357989497b89ac21b1807677a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"hettie"},"url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/author\/hettie\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8267,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8240\/revisions\/8267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8240"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=8240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}