O'Connor confirms return to Aussie Road Nats – on home roads – in 2026
Ben O'Connor has confirmed he will return to the Australian National Championships for the first time since 2023. The Perth native will line up on home roads a year after the Championships transferred to Western Australia for the first time since 1997, won in 2025 by Luke Durbridge.
"I'll go back to Australia and do the nationals in Perth," O'Connor told media at the Tour de France Criterium in Singapore. "A home race [for me], it'll be cool. I wanted to do it last year, but it just was going to be too difficult to fly home with my newborn daughter in the end. It'll be great to do it this year. I actually can't wait."
O'Connor has not raced at home since 2023 – when he finished 7th at Road Nats and 6th overall at the Tour Down Under – and before that, not since 2019. This, though, will be the first time he's raced on home roads with the Australian WorldTeam Jayco-AlUla whose jersey he's worn since the start of 2025.
"Being on Jayco will definitely make it a lot simpler. You actually have a teammate," O'Connor said. "The last time I did this race with a teammate was [in my] Dimension Data days, and that was just one, Lachlan Morton, so it was a completely different thing back then."
