Aussie rider Ben O’Connor Wins Tour de France Queen Stage for Jayco Alula

In stage 18 of the tour a Team Jayco Alula rider Ben O'Connor took an amazing win after having his GC hopes crushed earlier in the race.  

Aussie rider Ben O’Connor knows the struggles of the tour all too well. While he won a stage to Tignes and came fourth overall in 2021, misfortune has crushed his dreams in the tour many times over the past few years.  

O’Connor had this to say after completing the stage: "It's a pretty cruel race. I've just found myself on the deck in the first two days a few times, but not really for my own fault. Stage one here, it wasn't my fault. I was just taken out. "In Copenhagen [3 years ago], same thing, sprint finish, crash in front of me, nowhere to go. And then you had the crash in 2021. "So the first couple days really haven't treated me well at all in this race before." 

 

Despite previous setbacks in the race, O’Connor made it to the break early on and stayed in contention throughout the stage. After descending the Col de la Madeleine, the main GC contenders kept a steady pace in the Valley. Stage hunters O’Connor and Einer Rubio for Team Movistar attacked with Matteo Jorgenson of Team Visma–Lease a Bike following their lead. On the following climb of the Col de la Loze, Jorgenson was dropped first and O’Connor took his chance, launching a successful attack on Rubio and climbing solo to the finish.  

The Aussie rider described his conversation during the stage with team sport’s director Mathew Hayman: "You've got nothing to lose, and if you're going to win, you have to go from the bottom of the valley. Hopefully, with Matteo, that was the main thing, and that's what happened. Really then to the top of Col de la Loze it was a pretty straightforward affair, you either had it or you didn't." 

For O’Connor this is an amazing moment after so many setbacks in recent years at the race. Only joining Australian team Jayco Alula for the 2025 season, he described it as a proud moment. "It's about time I finally got a big result on the board being an Aussie rider on an Aussie team".