France's AG2R La Mondiale, which will become AG2R Citroën in 2021, has signed Ben O'Connor for the upcoming season.

The Australian, who has won the Giro d'Italia mountain prize three years in a row, finished second in the stage to San Daniele del Friuli and won his first Grand Tour stage the next day at Madonna di Campiglio. He is a rare bright spot for his current team, NTT Pro Cycling, and AG2R has signed the 24-year-old to a one-year contract.

"I am very excited to start with the AG2R Citroen team. It gives me the chance to discover a new culture, new teammates, and a different way of racing. I know very little about France other than spending vacations in the Alps with my parents, but I know that the AG2R Citroën team has one of the deepest histories in the peloton.

"It's very rewarding and gives me the chance to improve by riding with more experienced riders, and I'm happy to continue to ride with BMC," O'Connor said in a press release issued by his future team.

"The arrival of Citroen shows that the team has big ambitions for the future. I proved that I am capable of winning in the UCI World Tour.

O'Connor joined the WorldTour in 2017 as part of Dimension Data; in 2018 he made his Grand Tour debut at the Giro d'Italia, finishing 12th before a crash on stage 19 ended his race. 2019 saw him struggle to reach that level but he bounced back this fall with a string of impressive results.

"I've been in touch with Ben O'Connor for two years now," said AG2R's longtime boss, Vincent Lavenu.

"His profile as a climber is very interesting to us and he really has the strengths we were looking for. He is only 25 years old, but he has already proven his potential with his stage wins in the Giro and his good overall results. He is definitely the best addition to the team."

Ben O'Connor's departure from NTT Pro Cycling is another blow to the South African team, which is desperately clinging to the faint hope of finding a replacement sponsor after it was announced that NTT would be leaving the team at the end of this season.

That leaves team manager Doug Ryder with only a few weeks to find a sponsor for the already beleaguered team. There have been rumors in recent days of a last-minute sponsor showing up, but Ryder has not confirmed any such news and did not respond to Cycling News inquiries.

For Lavenu's team, signing O'Connor is something of a coup. The Australian has always been touted as a major talent, but until this Giro, he had never been able to ride at such a high level of consistency; AG2R is in the midst of a major restructuring, with many of its oldest riders leaving or retiring. Longtime leader Romain Bardet has moved to Sunweb, while Pierre Latour and Alexandre Genies have signed with Total Direct Energy.

In their place, Lavenu will be joined from Deceuninck-QuickStep by Bob Jungels, Lilian Calmejane, Stan DeWolf, Marc Sarrault, Damien Touze, Michael Scheer, and 2016 Olympic road race champion Greg Van Avermaat signed on. The shift to a strong classic unit is complete, but with the addition of O'Connor, Ravenu is looking to give the team even more balance. Next year's team is nearly full, but according to Cycling News, there is room to add another neo-pro rider.