{"id":52142,"date":"2026-03-20T08:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T08:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/?p=52142"},"modified":"2026-03-20T16:42:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:42:28","slug":"oconnor-and-double-headline-team-jayco-alula-at-volta-a-catalunya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/oconnor-and-double-headline-team-jayco-alula-at-volta-a-catalunya\/","title":{"rendered":"O\u2019Connor and Double headline Team Jayco AlUla at Volta a Catalunya"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ben O\u2019Connor<\/strong> and Paul Double<\/strong> will headline Team Jayco AlUla<\/strong> at the forthcoming Volta a Catalunya<\/strong>, which takes place between 23 and 29 March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weeklong Spanish stage race will mark the beginning of O\u2019Connor\u2019s build towards the Giro d\u2019Italia later in the spring, where he will be targeting an overall podium. The Australian, who will be the team\u2019s main leader, has been working hard at altitude over the last month after last racing in February at the UAE Tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Double will also be afforded his own opportunity in the general classification alongside O\u2019Connor. The 29-year-old closed out the 2025 season in style with the overall win at the Tour of Guangxi and has enjoyed a solid start to this year after taking fifth overall at the Tour of Oman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Providing support for O\u2019Connor and Double in the mountains will be climbers Rudy Porter<\/strong> and Koen Bouwman<\/strong>. German puncheur Felix Engelhardt<\/strong> will also play a key role on the rolling terrain and could be given his own chances on the punchy terrain if the opportunity arises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rounding out the squad will be the very experienced Chris Juul-Jensen<\/strong> and Patrick Gamper<\/strong>, who will form the engine room of the team over the flatter parts of the route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Jayco AlUla for Volta a Catalunya<\/span>
Koen Bouwman (NED)
Paul Double (GBR)
Felix Engelhardt (GER)
Patrick Gamper (AUT)
Chris Juul-Jensen (DEN)
Ben O\u2019Connor (AUS)
Rudy Porter (AUS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben O\u2019Connor<\/strong><\/span>
\u201cCatalunya is probably the stage race that I\u2019ve done the most in my career. I always love it, I always enjoy it and I\u2019ve done well here in the past. In the end, I want to be climbing with the best boys on these big climbs here in the Catalan Pyrenees. They\u2019re long climbs and they suit my dynamic. I always enjoy it and, to cap it off, finishing in Barcelona is a great and fun circuit. It\u2019s not exactly the same course that we\u2019ll do at the Tour de France but it\u2019s close enough. It\u2019s a great way to end the race in a city with a short, punchy circuit. Excited for it and preparation has been good. I\u2019ve been up in Tenerife for a little while since the UAE Tour so hopefully it all pays off. In the end, my goal is to be climbing with the best guys and let\u2019s see where we end up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neil Stephens \u2013 Sport Director<\/strong><\/span>
\u201cAt the Volta a Catalunya, we have three relatively flat stages followed by three mountain stages, two of which are hilltop stages, plus the hilly final stage in Barcelona, which is always raced full gas. The race builds up as we go right until the intense final stage. We\u2019ve got a strong line-up and team leader will be Ben O\u2019Connor. He started the year with some hard racing in Australia and the UAE, but he\u2019s had a bit of a break and some time at altitude so now he\u2019s looking forward to starting his Giro campaign here. We\u2019re not sure how he\u2019ll compare against the other climbers at this point but he\u2019s looking forward to getting some good climbing in the legs.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Double will be something of a co-leader. He showed his climbing skills when he won the Tour of Guangxi last year but he\u2019s still yet to be proven in the longer Pyrenean climbs that we\u2019ll see in Catalunya. We will support him in taking that progression and he\u2019s looking forward to taking on that test, too. We will try to be present in most of the stages and hopefully we can finish the week on a high in Barcelona.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volta a Catalunya 2026<\/span>
23-29 March \u2013 7 stages<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Ben O\u2019Connor and Paul Double will headline Team Jayco AlUla at the forthcoming Volta a Catalunya, which takes place between 23 and 29 March. The weeklong Spanish stage race…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52143,"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\/52142"}],"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=52142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52144,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52142\/revisions\/52144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenedgecycling.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}