{"id":51799,"date":"2026-02-03T07:55:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T07:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2024\/?p=51799"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:46:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:46:36","slug":"ben-oconnor-confirms-2026-goals-with-giro-ditalia-gc-the-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/ben-oconnor-confirms-2026-goals-with-giro-ditalia-gc-the-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben O\u2019Connor confirms 2026 goals with Giro d\u2019Italia GC the focus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ben O\u2019Connor<\/strong> has today confirmed his goals for the 2026 season with the Giro d\u2019Italia<\/strong> general classification his main objective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 30-year-old was a stage winner at the Italian Grand Tour back in 2020 and finished fourth overall in 2024.Now, the rider from Perth is eager to return stronger and more mature and challenge once again for the overall title, this year with\u00a0Team Jayco AlUla.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having kicked off his season in his native Australia at the Tour Down Under, O\u2019Connor will now shift his focus and preparations to May and the Grande Partenza in Bulgaria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Giro\u00a0d\u2019Italia\u00a0always finds our soft spots,\u201d <\/strong>O\u2019Connor explained.\u00a0\u201cMaybe it\u2019s\u00a0just the Italian allure, or maybe because it was the Grand Tour\u00a0I always believed\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0perform well at.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2024 Giro\u00a0and the fourth place\u00a0overall\u00a0was a good result, but no one likes finishing off the podium.\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0love to change that in the future and\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0wait to be back there this year.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 Giro d\u2019Italia features a 40km individual time trial and a massive 49,150 metres of climbing: the perfect combination for the Team Jayco AlUla climber. Living and training at altitude, the return of several mountain top finishes above 2,000 metres is also a welcome addition with O\u2019Connor hoping to shine on the hardest of days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving that long crescendo into the final week of\u00a0big mountains\u00a0is something\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0always suited my style,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>O\u2019Connor continued<\/em> \u201cAnd\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0been replicated again for 2026, especially the Dolomiti stage.<\/em>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With no fewer than 12 Grand Tour starts under his belt, the four-time Grand Tour stage winner knows what it takes to pace himself over three weeks. O\u2019Connor has come close to a GC victory before with his stunning second place finish at the 2024 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, plus another near-podium finish, with fourth place at the 2021 Tour de France.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBen has been on the podium in a Grand Tour before,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>said Sporting Manager Gene Bates.<\/em> \u201cHe was fourth at the Giro a few years ago and so he knows what it takes. This year, he\u2019s older and wiser, and we\u2019re really looking forward to supporting him to achieve the best result he can overall at the Giro.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His season is built around this early goal, he had a strong start in Australia and we\u2019ll be helping him to build over the next months to arrive in Bulgaria in the best shape possible, and with a team ready to assist him over the challenging edition of this year\u2019s Giro.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Jayco AlUla performance staff believe 2026 can be the year that O\u2019Connor steps onto the Giro podium and the team will be backing him as team leader all the way from Bulgaria to Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giro d\u2019Italia 2026<\/span><\/strong>
109th<\/sup>\u00a0edition
8th<\/sup>\u00a0\u2013 31st<\/sup>\u00a0May
Bulgaria to Rome

Photo: Zac Williams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben O\u2019Connor has today confirmed his goals for the 2026 season with the Giro d\u2019Italia general classification his main objective. The 30-year-old was a stage winner at the Italian Grand Tour back…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[296,386],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51799"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51833,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51799\/revisions\/51833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}