'I want to be ready and switched on' – Ben O'Connor to start WorldTour season at home in 2026 with Tour Down Under

Ben O'Connor will be leading the charge for Jayco-AlUla at the Santos Tour Down Under in January, delivering a powerful contender for the Australian team at the opening WorldTour race of the season.

The squad last won its home tour in 2019 with Daryl Impey, however with the four-time Grand Tour stage winner on hand, 2026 presents a strong opportunity for the team which O'Connor joined at the start of 2025.

“The challenging course for next year's TDU will suit his climbing abilities and we expect he will be joined by a really strong Jayco AlUla team with him to target the Santos Ochre Leaders Jersey,” said the race director of Tour Down Under, Stuart O'Grady of the first headline rider announced for the 2026 edition of the men's race.

The WorldTour race from Tuesday January 20 to Sunday January 25 will start with an inner-city prologue and across the next stages includes two climbs up the Corkscrew, three ascents of Old Willunga Hill and concludes with a challenging final day of racing that includes seven passes of the category two Stirling climb before it provides a finish venue that is likely to keep the usually tight GC race open right through to the very end.

As is the case with many Australian riders, O'Connor's first WorldTour race was the Tour Down Under, where he lined up with Dimension Data at the beginning of his career in 2017 and quickly highlighted his potential with a seventh in the youth classification and 20th overall. He has raced the season opener three more times since, in 2018, 2019 and 2023 when he delivered his best overall result of sixth.

That, however, was before he switched over to Jayco AlUla who always place a considerable target on the Australian summer of racing given it plays out in its home territory. O'Connor will first be lining up with the squad at the Australian Road National Championships in Perth before heading over to Adelaide to take on the Australian race.

“It’s one of the best races of the year, a lot of people can back that up being centralised in the middle of the city with this big festival atmosphere as well so I love it," said O'Connor in the race media release. “And riding with Team Jayco AlUla there is a responsibility to perform there, so I want to be ready and switched on."

The rider, who this year delivered his new team a Tour de France stage victory, said he'd love to be on the podium in Adelaide one year, and while the race will never provide long climbs like are found in the crucial stages of a Grand Tour, the 2026 course still provides multiple opportunities for the climbers among the field.

“I think the main stage will be the Uraidla day when you go up the Corkscrew and turn left, it makes the climb 2km longer and it’s quite different going from a 5-8 to a 10-13 minute effort, so it does suit me a bit better," said O'Connor.

“And that final day in Stirling is pretty relentless, nothing is too steep but I’m thinking things can get pretty out of hand later in the laps, because there will be some fatigue and it’s a pretty unforgiving circuit. So it definitely opens the race up to be more aggressive, especially on that last stage because you can just lay it all out there."