O’Connor conquers Col de la Loze as Pogacar extends GC lead
The Jayco-AlUla rider attacked his breakaway colleague Einer Rubio with 16km of the final, savage climb to go. In the GC group, Tadej Pogačar gained more time after dropping Jonas Vingegaard in the final kilometre.
Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla) won stage 18 of the Tour de France with a magnificent 16km solo move on the fearsome Col de la Loze.
The Australian had attacked a group of eight men at the bottom of the climb, going away with Einer Rubio (Movistar) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike). While the American dropped back early on, O’Connor attacked Rubio just inside the final 16km, soloing to his second Tour de France mountain stage win.
Visma | Lease a Bike had launched a grand offensive on the preceding Col de la Madeleine, but Tadej Pogačar responded to Jonas Vingegaard's attack. The pair bridged up to the leaders on the climb, but they sat up in the valley before the Col de la Loze after O'Connor, Rubio and Jorgenson clipped away.
Visma took up the reins again on the Col de la Loze before UAE Team Emirates-XRG took over midway up the climb. Only inside the final 2km did Vingegaard make a move, but he was again unable to drop Pogačar.
Inside the final kilometre, Pogačar responded with his move, finishing second and putting more time into Vingegaard who was third on the day.
How it unfolded
The queen stage with an eye-watering 5,450m of climbing and three monster climbs on which the peloton could create the race during the 171.5km stage which started in Vif. The stage began with the 21.7km Col du Glandon, headed to the 19.2km Col de la Madeleine, before tackling to the final climb, the Col de la Loze.
Not only was the Col de la Loze a ridiculous 26.4km at 6.5%, it was also the scene of Tadej Pogačar’s 2023 capitulation where he breathed the unforgettable ‘I’m gone, I’m dead,’ into his radio for the world to hear.
After yesterday’s sprint stage, with Jonathan Milan tightening his grip on the points classification, an early intermediate sprint at 23.7km provided a chance for him to further secure the green jersey. Sure enough, the moment the flag dropped, Lidl-Trek headed to the front en masse, discouraging any breakaways.
The moment Milan scored maximum points in that sprint the attacks started, Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) leading the way in an effort to provide yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar some tactical options later in the day. An early group of around 30 men was quickly brought back as the road tipped upwards and riders began slipping out of the back.
The race was still active when Wellens reached the base of the Col du Glandon, though by then he had been joined by four others. However, all but Alexey Lutsenko (Israel-Premier Tech) had been dropped when, with 128km of the stage to go, Promož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) attacked the peloton.
A group formed around Roglič, bridging to the two leaders, with a 14 man breakaway forming, including Felix Gall Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), with Roglič starting the day in the top 10 on GC. A further group of six formed behind them, though the gaps remained negligible, with only 1.14 separating the front group and the peloton.
Over the top of the Glandon Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) took maximum climbing points, briefly securing the lead in the king of the mountains classification, before plummeting back, through the peloton, which crested the climb 1.55 behind.
Jorgensen and Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) emerged from the descent and onto the Madeleine leading Roglič and six other chasers by 35 seconds. Just over 80km from the line, Visma | Lease a Bike upped the pace in the peloton, just at the moment Roglič and his group regained their place with the leading duo, making eight men at the front.
As the climb wore on, Visma continued to take time out of Roglič’s breakaway group, simultaneously increasing pressure on Pogačar, before, 5km from the top of the climb, Vingegaard made his first move, leaving only him and Pogačar in the GC group. Within seconds they reached the front group, Vingegaard slipping onto Jorgenson’s wheel for a period of calm.
Seven men crested the Col de la Madeleine, Jorgenson, Vingegaard, Pogačar, Roglič, Gall, Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla) and Einar Rubio (Movistar) entering the final 66km, the rest of the race scattered across the mountain behind them.
After Jorgenson led all the way down the descent, in the valley cooperation halted, riders looking at each other. O’Connor soon launched his attack quickly building a lead of more than one minute, while Arensman and best young rider, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) joined the Pogačar group.
Lipowitz didn’t stay too long, though, the German attacking in a bid to bridge to the leading trio. Though he began the stage in third place overall, with a deficit of more than nine minutes he was no threat and the GC group eased up. As the climb began, just over 26km from the line, Pogačar’s group were well over three minutes behind the lead, another large group soon catching them, bringing team mates for both Pogčar and Vingegaard.
Picnic-PostNL led that group, towing Oscar Onley closer to his main GC and white jersey rival, Lipowitz, who remained two minutes up the road, though it was Visma | Lease a Bike who took control at the front.
At the front, with just under 16km to go, O’Connor dropped Rubio, while Jorgenson had fallen back much earlier. Lipowitz, meanwhile, was clinging on gamely, though he was eventually caught and passed by the GC group, including Onley, who ultimately put time into the German.
With only 12km of climbing left, it was all change in the GC group, Pogačar’s UAE team coming to the front, Jhonatan Narváez setting the pace, before, with just over 5km to go, Adam Yates took over at the front over an ever smaller group in which Vingegaard was isolated, though by then the stage was decided.
