According to team boss Matt White, Australian overall contender Ben O'Connor will focus on the Tour de France next season following his addition to Jayco Alura.

O'Connor's 2025 race program is already taking shape, and he may target one-day races such as Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia.

The 28-year-old Connor joins the Australian team after a successful season in which he finished second in La Vuelta a España and the World Championship road race with Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale and fourth overall in the Giro d'Italia.

“He will be back from the Tour de France and that race will be his first goal for the summer,” White told Daniel Benson's Cycling Substack.

“There will be a fairly traditional build-up from February through the spring. And at the Vuelta at the end of the season, we may see him back up,” he added.

O'Connor has competed in the Tour de France three times before, finishing fourth in 2021, but he withdrew from the race the following year with a separated gluteus muscle and finished a disappointing 17th in the 2023 edition.

“My ambition is to stay aggressive and consistent and one day finish fourth overall on the overall podium in a Grand Tour. Winning is equally important and it's important to get my hand up as quickly as possible,” O'Connor said in a team press release at the time of the contract announcement.

Jayco Alura, who has moved longtime GC leader Simon Yates to Visma Lease-a-Bike, has strengthened his support options in preparation for O'Connor's arrival.

Kane Bouwman (Visma Lease-a-Bike) and Paul Double (Portico Meter) are strong additions to the climbing group, while Jasha Satalin (Bahrain Victorious) adds more power to the engine room.

In the past, O'Connor has been expected to perform primarily in stage races, especially in the Grand Tours. This year, he showed his potential in one-day events with an impressive performance at the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich, finishing second behind Tadej Pogachar.

“His coach thought he should focus more on one-day races. Liège, for example. It is a race that suits his characteristics. Liège, Lombardia would suit him.”

The team plan for 2025 has not yet been fully decided by Jaco-Aroura, but the framework for the 2025 Grand Tour team is already in place and will be finalized in the coming weeks.

O'Connor will lead the Tour along with one of the sprinters from Jaco-Aroura, and the team will also target the overall classification of the Giro d'Italia.

“We will run the same model as before in terms of taking sprinters to the Tour and Ben. Just like Simon Yates and Dylan Groenewegen. Several others, including Eddy [Dunbar] and Mauro [Schmidt], have also announced that they will compete in the Tour.

“As for the Giro route, the details matter. Someone will have to run the GC. At the moment, we think Chris Harper will be on GC. It's a race that fits his characteristics, but he's not going there to win, he's going there to finish in the top eight or thereabouts, to finish high on GC.”