Tour de France: Ben O’Connor in second after stage win as Pogacar stays on track
In a torrid weekend of Alpine racing, the defending Tour de France champion, Tadej Pogacar, broke the resistance of his most likely rivals and took a near-invincible lead in the three-week race, after only nine of the Tour’s 21 stages.
Having cracked the peloton apart with a remarkable lone attack on Saturday’s first mountain stage to Le Grand-Bornand, the UAE Emirates team leader again took time at Tignes, the Tour’s first summit finish, where he seemed to almost toy with the oncedominant Ineos Grenadiers, led by Richard Carapaz and Geraint Thomas.
On the final climb, the British team’s flame flickered briefly, as Thomas rode hard to set up an attack from their bestplaced rider, Carapaz. Pogacar however, was ruthless and moved quickly to snuff it out. He then moved clear to distance the Ecuadorian further.
“They wanted to try to make the race,” Pogacar said. “They tried, but I gave my best to counterattack. I was thinking: ‘Maybe if I don’t, everyone will attack sooner or later, and I could be in problems,’ but I was OK.”
Pogacar was more than OK. Carapaz had started the stage as his team’s bestplaced rider, five minutes behind the 22-year-old.
By the end of the afternoon he was a further half-minute behind the champion and had been unexpectedly usurped by a fresh-faced Australian making his Tour debut.
Ben O’Connor claimed the freezing cold stage, after an epic lone attack moved him into second place overall, just over two minutes behind Pogacar. “It’s life changing for me,” the 25-yearold said of his first Tour stage success.
“It’s a far-fetched dream when you come from Australia. To achieve this today is testimony to everyone who’s believed in me over the years. It’s so fulfilling and there’s so much joy. I’m loving every single moment.”
In a weekend of long range breakaways, O’Connor’s decisive move came with 75km still to race as he moved clear of the day’s 40-rider breakaway. The Australian, leader of the AG2R Citroën team, was joined on the long climb to Tignes by Sergio Higuita, of EF Education-Nippo, winner of a stage in the 2019 Vuelta a España.
But after waiting for O’Connor to hand his soaked rain cape to a following race car, the Colombian was distanced as the Australian climbed clear and rode into Tignes.
The prospect of another day of pouring rain and freezing temperatures proved too much for Jumbo Visma’s ailing team leader, Primoz Roglic, who, after finishing third from last on Saturday, quit the race to recover from his crash injuries and prepare for the Tokyo Olympics later this month.
“It doesn’t make sense to continue,” Roglic, second overall in Paris in 2020, said. “I was not making any progress in my recovery. The long and tough stages take their toll. I will now focus on recovering.”
Another to turn their attention to the Olympics was Mathieu van der Poel, the stage two winner and former maillot jaune. The Alpecin-Fenix rider enjoyed six days in the race lead but said it was impossible “to do the whole Tour and be on the top of my game for Tokyo. I’ll be back next year to go to Paris.”
Thomas, battling with the shoulder injury he sustained after crashing last week and already nearly 40 minutes behind Pogacar, started the stage. Yet physically and mentally, this has been a brutal Tour for Thomas and his teammates, who have so far been outsmarted and outridden by the voracious Pogacar.
On Sunday morning, the Ineos team principal, Sir Dave Brailsford, reacted to the Slovenian’s description of Saturday’s spectacular attack into Le Grand-Bornand as “payback,” saying Pogacar’s performance was brilliant.
“It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that the race is over and everyone race for the podium, but three-week bike racing is unpredictable – even more so when the first week has been raced so hard,” Brailsford said.
“Grand Tours are never won until the final finish line is crossed and there’s a long way to go with more twists and turns before we get there. We will embrace this challenge and enjoy racing hard to the very end.”