photo credits @Le Tour
Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) conquered the highest summit in this year’s Tour de France, the Col de la Loze, to claim his second stage win in the race four years after his triumph at Tignes. At the time, the Australian climber had covered the final 17 km solo. On Thursday, he dropped his last rival, Einer Rubio (Movistar), with 16 km to go and held off a late chase by Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
Meanwhile, the Slovenian crossed the line 1’45’’ behind, just ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), who lost 11 seconds including time bonuses. Heading into the final mountain stage to La Plagne on Friday, the Slovenian has a lead of 4’26’’ in the overall standings. The battle for third place and the white jersey is extremely close as Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) gained 1’37’’ on Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), narrowing the gap to just 22’’.
Race Highlights
After numerous attacks and counter-attacks, two large groups finally formed on the climb of the Col du Glandon. At the front of the race, were Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), O’Connor (Jayco AlUla), Raul Garcia Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Will Barta, Gregor Muhlberger, Einer Rubio (Movistar), Felix Gall, Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Michael Woods, Alexey Lutsenko (Israel Premier Tech)
On the descent, the Jorgenson-Arensman duo took off on the climb of the Col de la Madeleine, but some 11 km away from the summit the duo was caught by Roglic, O’Connor, Einer Rubio, Gall, Armirail and Alex Baudin.
However, the lead group’s dwindled away after Visma-Lease a Bike stepped up the pace, preparing Vingegaard’s attack 5 km away from the summit.
The shake-up was radical, with only Pogacar remaining on the Dane’s wheel. The leading duo in the general classification later caught up with the rest of the breakaway 4 km from the Col de la Madeleine and finished with the group.
O’Connor later attacked with 41 km to go, with Rubio and Jorgenson in tow, quickly opening up a gap of around a minute, while Onley, Vauquelin and Johannessen made their way back to the Pogacar/Vingegaard group.
O’Connor and Rubio later dropped Jorgenson with 21 km to go, with the Australian going solo 16 km away from the finish. From there, O’Connor never looked back while UAE Team Emirates-XRG took control of the GC group with Jhonatan Narvaez and then Adam Yates set the pace until the last kilometer.
Vingegaard later tried another attack, but Pogacar commenced a counter-attack during the final 500 meters, flying past Rubio to take the 2nd place (+1’45’’) ahead of his Danish rival (+1’54’’).
Right behind them, Onley (+1’58’’) gained 1’37’’ on Lipowitz and narrowed the gap to third place in the overall standings to 22’’.
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