Ben O’Connor will return to Decathlon CMA CGM for the 2027 season after agreeing a two-year contract with the French WorldTour team, bringing an end to his spell at Jayco AlUla. The Australian will remain with Decathlon through 2028, rejoining the organisation where he produced some of the strongest Grand Tour performances of his career between 2021 and 2024.
The announcement brings to a close several months of speculation over O’Connor’s future. His return had been reported during the summer, but the team has now confirmed the agreement and welcomed him back to the squad he represented under its AG2R Citroën and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale identities. O’Connor will turn 31 in November.
Decathlon highlighted his stage victory and fourth place overall at the 2021 Tour de France, along with his 2024 Vuelta a España stage win and second place in the general classification. The results explain the significance of the reunion: O’Connor is a proven Grand Tour contender with the experience to take responsibility in the mountains, even if his most recent season has fallen short of his previous level.
O’Connor’s first spell brought his biggest general classification results
O’Connor joined the French team from NTT Pro Cycling for 2021 and immediately gave it a rider capable of competing high up the overall classification in three-week races. He won stage nine of that year’s Tour de France at Tignes after a long breakaway in difficult weather, then held on to finish fourth overall in Paris. The result established him as one of Australia’s strongest stage racers and changed the expectations surrounding his subsequent seasons.
There were setbacks, including injuries that forced him out of the 2022 Tour de France, but he went on to finish third at the Critérium du Dauphiné in both 2022 and 2023. Those performances reinforced his ability to handle repeated mountain stages and high-level time trials, even as a Tour podium remained out of reach.
His outstanding season came in 2024. O’Connor finished fourth at the Giro d’Italia and then took a commanding stage-six breakaway victory at the Vuelta a España, opening an advantage large enough to take the red jersey and defend it for almost two weeks. He eventually finished second overall behind Primož Roglič, before also winning silver in the elite men’s road race at the World Championships in Zürich.
That Vuelta result was an important breakthrough for the team as well as the rider. ProCyclingUK reported his decisive stage-six victory, the day that turned a breakaway opportunity into a genuine challenge for a Grand Tour title. Although he ultimately lost the lead, his performance remained one of the strongest overall results achieved during his first four years with the French squad.
A Tour stage win but an uneven two years at Jayco AlUla
O’Connor departed for Jayco AlUla in 2025, joining the Australian WorldTour team to lead its Grand Tour ambitions. The change gave him a prominent role within a different racing structure, though the results were more uneven than those of his best years with Decathlon.
His biggest victory in Jayco colours came on stage 18 of the 2025 Tour de France, when he attacked from the breakaway and won alone at the top of the Col de la Loze. The high-altitude finish rewarded his willingness to gamble on a difficult day in the mountains, rather than simply riding defensively for a general classification placing. The Col de la Loze victory gave him a second individual Tour stage win, four years after his success at Tignes.
The 2026 campaign brought a different picture. O’Connor targeted the Giro d’Italia general classification, but illness compromised his race and he finished 16th overall. He then placed 28th at the Tour de France, without adding another stage victory. The results do not erase what he achieved in 2024 and 2025, but they underline that Decathlon are recruiting an experienced rider who needs to rediscover the consistency that made him a podium contender.
Photo Credit: GettyHow does O’Connor fit alongside Paul Seixas?
Decathlon CMA CGM are approaching 2027 with a different balance of riders from the one O’Connor left. Paul Seixas has emerged as a leading French talent, with his victory at the 2026 Il Lombardia adding to a rapid progression into the sport’s biggest races. Seixas’s Lombardia win has increased expectations surrounding a rider who is still at an early stage of his WorldTour career.
O’Connor’s return gives the team another credible option for mountainous stage races while reducing the pressure to place every general classification objective on Seixas. It does not necessarily mean he will be the sole leader in a Grand Tour. His programme, and the division of responsibility with the team’s other climbers, will depend on the routes selected and the form each rider brings into the season.
There is an obvious difference in experience between the pair. O’Connor has ridden repeated Grand Tours as a protected leader, defended a race lead for nearly two weeks and learned how quickly a three-week campaign can change through illness, crashes or a single difficult stage. That background could be valuable to Seixas even when they are not racing towards the same objective.
The signing also changes the options available to Decathlon’s sports directors. O’Connor can be deployed as a leader in week-long stage races, share leadership in a Grand Tour or pursue individual mountain stages if his general classification ambitions are no longer realistic. His best victories have often come when he has committed to a move rather than waited for a conventional favourites’ contest.
Two-year reunion gives Decathlon another experienced climbing option
O’Connor returns to a team that knows his preparation, racing preferences and the circumstances in which he has previously produced his best results. His successful first spell explains why the reunion makes sense for both sides, but it will be the performances in 2027, rather than the memories of 2021 or 2024, that determine how valuable the move becomes.
For Jayco AlUla, the departure removes a rider who delivered a high-profile Tour de France stage victory during his two seasons with the Australian squad. For Decathlon CMA CGM, it brings back a Grand Tour runner-up and proven mountain stage winner on a contract that runs through the end of 2028, adding experience to a team increasingly shaped around its younger climbing talent.
