The Queen stage of Le Tour is finally here – 171km with a massive 5,450m of vertical gain.
A scary profile for the peloton today – 3 HC climbs
Today’s queen stage started with a relatively easy 24km ride to the intermediate sprint which the Lidl-Trek boys were treating as their finish line. There were two objectives for the American team today – take maximum points with Milan at the sprint point and then get to the ‘real’ finish line after 171km safely and inside the time limit.
The Lidl-Trek team had total control before the sprint
A consequence of Lidl-Trek’s interest in the sprint was that nobody could get away until after the sprint which was duly won by Milan ahead of Biniam Girmay. Objective achieved by Lidl-Trek with Milan’s points won today virtually guaranteeing him the green jersey if he manages to finish the Tour safely.
The real race could now start and surprisingly it was Pogacar’s teammate, Tim Wellens who was the first to get away.
Wellens went solo
Wellens held a solo lead for a number of kilometers before being joined by a quatro of Jonas Rutsch, Alexey Lutsenko, Wout Van Aert and the Aussie sprinter Kaden Groves on the lower slopes of the Col du Glandon.
The brutal slopes of the Glandon soon proved too much for Rutsch and then Groves and finally Wellens also got rid of Van Aert with his high pace. Wellens couldn’t stay out the front by himself though as there was a stream of attacks from the peloton behind and ones & twos bridged up to Wellens.
7km from the summit there was now a big group clear that included Wellens but more importantly GC men like Roglic (5th overall), Gall (7th), Jegat (10th), O’Connor (11th), Arensman (13th) and Vingegaard’s teammate, Jorgenson (20th). The race was on!
Roglic was amongst the attackers with almost 130km remaining!
The race was on upfront and the pace was on back in the peloton too which was rapidly shrinking under the pressure of Visma.
Visma came in with a plan today – put Pogacar under pressure from the very first climb
Polka dot wearing Lenny Martinez (Bahrain) was in the front group and despite struggling and almost getting dropped on numerous occasions he crested the Glandon in first place and took the precious 20 points on offer.
The peloton was still 30 riders strong and it was Nils Polit leading them 2 minutes behind the breakaway.
UAE were still there in numbers on the first climb…
It was on the second HC climb of the day, the mythical Col de la Madeleine where Visma lit up the race. Jorgenson had broken clear at the front of the race with Arensman (Ineos) and then his own team were exploding the peloton behind with Van Aert, then Benoot then Campanaerts setting an incredible pace.
It was too much for Ben Healy (9th overall) & Kevin Vauquelin (6th) amongst others as the peloton dwindled to less than a dozen riders. Pogacar was then completely isolated when Sep Kuss took over and it was only 4 riders left in the peloton!
Kuss, Vingegaard, Pogacar & Lipowitz were all that was left of the peloton
Kuss was setting a ferocious pace and when he was finished his turn Jonas Vingegaard attacked with more than 72km still remaining! Vingegaard’s attack shook Lipowitz but he couldn’t shake Pogacar and despite a couple of tries the Slovenian was stuck to the Dane’s back wheel.
The dynamic GC duo quickly caught up to the remainders of the breakaway and Vingegaard settled on to the back wheel of his teammate Jorgenson as they crested the 2nd HC climb of the day.
There was now a group of just 6 riders at the front of the race, Jorgenson & Vingegaard (Visma), Pogacar (UAE), Gall (Decathlon), Roglic (RedBull), O’Connor (Jayco) and Rubio (Movistar) with the rest of the race in small groups shattered all over the mountain. Healy, Vauqelin, Onley, Lipowitz and co. were all losing time but after the descent the 6 upfront started playing mind games and the pace dropped completely.
With nothing to lose Ben O’Connor launched an attack in the valley on the way to the last climb and Rubio and Jorgenson quickly followed. Vingegaard didn’t want to work, Roglic was waiting for Lipowitz to catch up, Pogacar was happy to sit in the wheels and wait for his teammates so it was only Felix Gall who was frustrated with the situation. He had minutes over certain GC contenders but with nobody willing to work his hands were tied and their group started to swell as small numbers caught up from behind.
Meanhile up front O’Connor and Rubio were doing the lion’s share of the work to try and have the biggest lead possible going into the final climb.
The leading trio approaching the Col de la Loze
In the end they made it to the bottom of the climb with a one minute lead ahead of Lipowitz who had caught and passed the Pogacar group and almost a 4 minute lead over Pogacar, Vingegaard and co.
Knowing that 4 minutes isn’t much over Tadej Pogacar, Ben O’Connor put the hammer down and quickly dropped Jorgenson and then a few kilometers later he also left Rubio behind to try and take a solo win.
Back in the pack and now surrounded by teammates again, Pogi looked comfortable but as did Vingegaard – who would be the first to attack?
For a long while the answer was noone as the action was more at the back of the group as the likes of Lipowitz and Vauquelin were dropped under the pressure from the UAE pairing of Narvaez and then Yates.
The UAE boys were doing damage to Pogacar’s rivals but not to Ben O’Connor’s lead who was looking great and saving his Tour de France with an amazing ride.
O’Connor was unstoppable today
Vingegaard attacked Pogi with 2 km to go but Pogacar answered easily, Onley less so and the lead group was now a trio. Pogacar then attacked in the final kilometer and he took a few more seconds over Vingegaard but more importantly he won the psychological battle. Can Vingegaard finally crack Pogacar tomorrow on the last mountain stage?
A superb win for O’Connor
Tomorrow’s stage profile. It’s the last chance for Vingegaard to crack Pogacar
Stage 18 Results:
1 O’Connor Ben Team Jayco AlUla 5:03:47
2 Pogačar Tadej UAE Team Emirates – XRG @ 1:45
3 Vingegaard Jonas Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 1:54
4 Onley Oscar Team Picnic PostNL @ 1:58
5 Rubio Einer Movistar Team @ 2:00
6 Gall Felix Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team @ 2:25
7 Roglič Primož Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 2:46
8 Yates Adam UAE Team Emirates – XRG @ 3:03
9 Johannessen Tobias Halland Uno-X Mobility @ 3:09
10 Kuss Sepp Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 3:26
11 Lipowitz Florian Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 3:37
12 Vauquelin Kévin Arkéa – B&B Hotels @ 4:34
13 Narváez Jhonatan UAE Team Emirates – XRG @ 7:37
14 Higuita Sergio XDS Astana Team @ 8:13
15 Storer Michael Tudor Pro Cycling Team @ 8:13
GC After Stage 18:
1 Pogačar Tadej UAE Team Emirates – XRG 66:55:42
2 Vingegaard Jonas Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 4:26
3 Lipowitz Florian Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 11:01
4 Onley Oscar Team Picnic PostNL @ 11:23
5 Roglič Primož Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 12:49
6 Gall Felix Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team @ 15:36
7 Vauquelin Kévin Arkéa – B&B Hotels @ 16:15
8 Johannessen Tobias Halland Uno-X Mobility @ 18:31
9 Healy Ben EF Education – EasyPost @ 25:41
10 O’Connor Ben Team Jayco AlUla @ 29:19
11 Jegat Jordan Team TotalEnergies @ 32:51
12 Kuss Sepp Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 49:46
13 Arensman Thymen INEOS Grenadiers @ 52:49
14 Narváez Jhonatan UAE Team Emirates – XRG @ 58:02
15 Higuita Sergio XDS Astana Team @ 1:01:31
16 Martin Guillaume Groupama – FDJ @ 1:02:42
17 Jorgenson Matteo Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 1:13:01
18 Yates Simon Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 1:13:34
19 Madouas Valentin Groupama – FDJ @ 1:16:19
20 Yates Adam UAE Team Emirates – XRG @ 1:19:20
The post TOUR’25 Stage 18: O’Connor The King! appeared first on PezCycling News.
