Australian Ben O'Connor wins Tour de France Stage 18
General view of the riders during the 18th stage of the Tour de France.
COURCHEVEL COL DE LA LOZE – Australian Ben O'Connor of the Jayco AlUla team won the 18th stage of the Tour de France, a 171.5-km mountain trek between Vif and the Col de la Loze on Thursday.
Slovenian Tadej Pogacar finished second and retained the overall leader's yellow jersey, stretching his advantage over chief rival Jonas Vingegaard, who came up third, by 11 seconds to 4:26.
When asked if he felt he could win the stage, O'Connor said: 'No, not at all. But I felt much better today from the start. I was pretty active.
'It's a rough race. It's the biggest race in the world, but it's for sure the cruellest. I couldn't be more proud of myself, and the boys, they backed me every single day through this whole race, even in the rough times.
'Thanks to everyone at Jayco-AlUla. It's what the team needed and what I needed.'
Pogacar suffered a big scare when he bumped into the team car of Vingegaard before the start of the stage.
'We were going to the start line and the cars were also going... we were cruising behind the (Visma-Lease a Bike) car, maybe a bit too close and he suddenly... maybe I don't know if he wanted to brake check me, to check my brakes,' Pogacar said with a smile.
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'I was not ready because I did not see the reason why he had to stop urgently so we crashed into the car, but it's okay, I'm okay we're good.'
Meanwhile, Ineos' top-ranked rider Carlos Rodriguez pulled out of the Tour after suffering a broken pelvis on Stage 17's late mass pile-up the previous day.
In 10th position going into the rainy flat stage, the Spanish climb specialist became entangled in a spectacular pile-up of flying bikes and bodies on the home straight at Valence on Wednesday.
'Carlos remains under the close supervision of our medical team. He will now return home to focus on recovery,' Ineos said.
Ineos had already lost former time trial world champion Filippo Ganna to concussion on Stage 1 at Lille.
The once-mighty British team, formerly known as Team SKY, won the Tour seven times between 2012-2019, but have been in a relative lull in recent years.
Additionally, a team soigneur, or carer, has also left the Tour after being asked to speak to the International Testing Agency (ITA) over allegations relating to the 2012 season.
'Following recent media allegations, David (Rozman) has now received a request from the ITA to attend an interview. Accordingly, he has stepped back from race duties and has left the Tour,' Ineos said, adding the team had not been presented with formal evidence or asked to participate in any inquiry.
The ITA declined to comment and Rozman did not answer phone calls. AFP, REUTERS
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