Australian climber Ben O’Connor delivered Team Jayco AlUla a special stage victory on day 18 of the Tour de France, with an impressive solo win into Courchevel.
The 29-year-old showed his intent for the Queen stage early on, jumping across to an early breakaway compiled of general classification contenders with 126km to remaining, on a day that featured more than 5000 metres of altitude gain.
With legs clearly fit for a stage win, with 42km to go the rider from Perth launched a damaging attack at the foot of the HC climb, Col de la Loze, initially taking with him two riders, Rubio and Jorgenson.
The trio opened up a sizeable advantage and as the riders began the final lengthy, iconic 26-kilometre climb, the Team Jayco AlUla rider once again pushed on the pedals to shake off his competition, dropping Jorgensen. Not content to wait, soon after O’Connor launched his race winning move, distancing Rubio with 15km of climbing to go.
With the bit between his teeth and only an uphill road between himself and the desired stage win, O’Connor managed to quickly open up his advantage further over Rubio and the chasing general classification group behind.
Arriving to the summit finish after a gnarly and long day in the saddle, O’Connor crossed the line with plenty of time to celebrate, 1 minute 45 ahead of his nearest rival Pogacar, to claim his second Tour de France stage win and fourth Grand Tour career victory. The Australian now also moves up to 10th place on the overall standings with just three stages remaining.
The victory adds a smile to the faces of everyone at GreenEDGE Cycling following on from Mauro Schmid’s painfully close second place finish on stage 11. It also makes Team Jayco AlUla the ninth team out of 23 to win a stage at this year’s Tour de France.
Ben O’Connor
“I’m normally at my best on these bigger stages of the race. It was so nice to find my legs again and find my true self and it is my second Tour de France win so to do it now with Jayco AlUla, an Aussie team, it’s a proud moment.
The pressure was on to get a result. We needed it as a team. I think it’s pretty rare for Team Jayco AlUla to go to the Tour without a stage win, so we had to do that and to do it on the Queen stage is a big thing.
I was on a good one but really to be honest this goes out to everyone who supports myself, the team and it is for all the loyal Australian supporters in general.”
Tour de France stage 18 – Results:
1. Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco AlUla) 5:03:47
2. Tadej Pogacar +1:45
3. Jonas Vingegaard +1:54
General classification after stage 18:
1. Tadej Pogacar 66:55:42
10. Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco AlUla) 29:18
Photo: Sprint Cycling
