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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
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Current racing:
- July 5 - 27: Tour de France
Upcoming racing:
- July 26 - July 30: Tour de Wallonie
- August 2: San Sebastian Classic
Latest completed racing:
- June 21 - 29: Most national road championships
- June 24: Giro dell'Appennino
- June 15 - 22: Tour de Suisse
- June 18 - 22: Baloise Belgium Tour
- July 9 - 13: Tour of Austria
- June 8 - 15: Critérium du Dauphiné
- June 13: GP Kanton Aargau
- June 8: Brussels Cycling Classic
- May 9 - June 1: Giro d'Italia
We posted the race organizer's report with the results.
Here's the report from stage winner Ben O'Connor's Team Jayco AlUla:
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 takes a brilliant solo win. ASO/Aurélien Vialatte photo
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.”
Here's the report from stage 18 second-place and GC leader Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG:
Remaining steadfast in his hold on the Yellow Jersey, Tadej Pogačar extended his lead of the race on stage 18 of the Tour de France. With second place across the line, behind the stage winner Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla), the Slovenian was able to distance his close rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the final 350m of the day.
Coming at the top of the fearsome Col de la Loze, the final few hundred metres were no easy task, allowing Pogačar the room to extend his lead by 11 seconds, with bonus seconds included. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG man now leads the Tour de France by a little under four and a half minutes heading into the final three days of racing.
Tadej Pogacar remains the owner of the Yellow Jersey. Sirotti photo
Despite Visma-Lease a Bike putting their plans for a siege into place on the Queen stage, Pogačar more than stood up to the task, with his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates also earning their weight in gold. Particular credit must go to Jhonatan Narváez and Adam Yates, both of whom remained beside the Slovenian for the majority of the final climb.
It was a display of dogged defiance from the Emirati squad, who moved a stage closer to a fourth Tour de France victory.
With more than 5,000m of climbing to contend with, stage 18 posed the biggest challenge to the peloton of this year’s race. Ascents of the Col du Glandon, the Col de la Madeleine and the Col de la Loze lay in wait, as the squad of Vingegaard looked to mount an assault on Pogačar’s race lead.
The first part of that plan saw Wout van Aert nip off the front of the bunch to seek his place in the day’s breakaway, to which UAE Team Emirates-XRG responded by sending Tim Wellens up the road. Of the two compatriots, it was the Belgian national champion, Wellens, who lasted the longest at the head of the race. With Pogačar’s peloton always likely to come from behind, the 34-year-old stuck to his tempo out front for the first half of the day.
Over the Col du Glandon and into the first kilometres of the Madeleine, it was Nils Politt, Marc Soler and Pavel Sivakov of UAE Team Emirates-XRG who led the peloton, before Visma-Lease a Bike gained control some 15km from the summit. Through Tiesj Benoot, Victor Campenaerts and Simon Yates, the Dutch squad looked to make the race as hard as possible before Vingegaard made an expected all-or-nothing move.
Right on cue, Sepp Kuss launched a vicious acceleration with 6km to ride, leading to an explosive attack from his team leader Vingegaard some 800m later. At this point, the race began to take a conventional state of play. Vingegaard bridged across to his teammate Matteo Jorgenson from the breakaway, with the pair holding Pogačar in their wheel heading over the top of the Madeleine.
All was near enough play by numbers. Until it wasn’t.
After a quick descent of the climb, the front group tilted course towards the base of the final climb, the Col de la Loze. However, in the valley that connected the peaks, Jorgenson followed an attack made by Ben O’Connor and Einer Rubio (Movistar). With that trio soon up the road with more than a minute, the group containing Pogačar, Vingegaard, Primoź Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and others began to hesitate, shy of any teammates to do the necessary legwork.
As a result, despite the ensemble of Pogačar and Vingegaard having gained more than three minutes on the group behind, this time gap evaporated. For Pogačar, this was no issue, reuniting him with teammates Soler, Adam Yates and Jhonatan Narváez. Sensing his race was almost run for the day, Soler immediately hit the front and began to set the pace through the lower slopes of the Col de la Loze.
Once Soler was done, Simon Yates looked to tee up Vingegaard for a second time, no doubt hoping to hand over the reins to Kuss once necessary. It was at this point that the day swung in UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s favour, with Narváez storming to the front and dislodging Visma-Lease a Bike’s stranglehold with 11.3km to ride.
From here on out, it was the Emirati squad that dictated the pace.
Narváez produced another fantastic performance to guide Pogačar into the final 5km, before Yates took over the work through the climb’s steepest slopes. As the man from Bury danced on the pedals, riders such as Roglič, Kuss and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) were sent out the back, before the battle came down to a three-way showdown between Pogačar, Vingegaard and podium hopeful Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL).
Vingegaard’s attacks were unable to distance either rider, and inside the final 500m of the stage, it was Pogačar who looked to land another blow. That acceleration proved fruitful just 350m from the line, with the Slovenian dropping both Vingegaard and Onley to surge towards the finish line alone.
Although the stage victory had slipped from grasp through the exploits of O’Connor out front, Pogačar could be satisfied with taking more time on the two-time Tour de France champion, Vingegaard.
Pogačar: “To be honest, I wanted the stage win but of course, the priority is the Yellow Jersey. When Visma went on the Col de la Madeleine, I thought we could go for the stage win as well. But they went a bit too hard maybe, and then also on the downhill they went so fast.
“In the end, it was such a small group and they started to attack each other, so there was no cooperation in the valley. I was waiting for my teammates to come back, but [that group] took a long way to come back.
“In the end, when we came to the bottom of the [last] climb, I was thinking that when Visma started to pull, they would go faster and try to bring the breakaway back. But I think Ben was incredibly strong today for the whole day and for the final climb, so I think he pulled it off quite well. The stage win slipped off, but I am happy that I had good legs on the Col de la Loze and that I keep Yellow.
“It looks very good. Today was the Queen stage, tomorrow is the second Queen stage. Let’s go for it, and we’ll see how it goes. Now, it is three more stages left, and then we can go for a vacation.”
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Here's the stage 18 report from third-place Jonas Vingegaard's Team Visma | Lease a Bike:
Jonas Vingegaard finished third in the gruelling eighteenth stage of the Tour de France. On the summit of the Col de la Loze, the 28-year-old Dane crossed the finish line just a few seconds behind yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogačar. The stage victory went to Ben O’Connor.
“It was an incredibly tough day,” Vingegaard reflected. “I don’t think I’ve ever ridden such a hard stage in my career. I felt quite good. It was our plan to make the race hard from early on, and that’s exactly what we did. I want to thank my teammates once again for their hard work today. Their support continues to motivate me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take any time back from Pogačar in the end, but once again we proved to be evenly matched.”
Jonas Vingegaard finishes third. Sirotti photo
The race came to life on the Col du Glandon, the first of three hors catégorie climbs. Team Visma | Lease a Bike immediately took control. A breakaway of eight riders, including Matteo Jorgenson, reached the summit of the Glandon with a two-minute lead over the peloton. The breakaway riders steadily extended their advantage on the approach to the foot of the Col de la Madeleine.
On the Madeleine, Team Visma | Lease a Bike continued to apply pressure on their rivals. After strong turns on the front by Tiesj Benoot, Wout van Aert, and Sepp Kuss, Vingegaard launched his first attack. Only Pogačar could follow the Dane’s pace. The pair quickly bridged across to the breakaway. On the descent and through the valley, Jorgenson worked tirelessly in support of his team leader. When hesitation arose in the lead group, Jorgenson responded to an attack from O’Connor and Einer Rubio, but was forced to let go shortly thereafter.
Meanwhile, cooperation broke down in the group of favourites. They were rejoined by a larger peloton, which still contained several Visma | Lease a Bike riders. The final climb of the day was the Col de la Loze. As they approached the summit, Vingegaard attacked once more, but Pogačar was again able to hold his wheel. Vingegaard, Pogačar, and Oscar Onley eventually contested second place behind stage winner O’Connor. After a sharp sprint from Pogačar, Vingegaard had to settle for third.
Fourth-place Oscar Onley's Team Picnic-PostNL posted this report:
The toughest stage of the Tour de France lay ahead of the peloton on Thursday afternoon with over 5500 meters of climbing spread throughout the 171 kilometer-long route. With the Col du Glandon, Col de la Madeleine and a summit finish on Col de la Loze it was set to be a brutal day of racing.
From the start the race was controlled until the intermediate sprint point, where the attacks then started and the race already blew to pieces on the lower slopes of the Col du Glandon. Frank van den Broek got up the road in a counter-move, while Warren Barguil remained in the ever-thinning yellow-jersey peloton alongside Oscar Onley. Van den Broek’s move was reeled in on the Col de la Madeleine, where the pace really increased towards the top, with the attacks flying. Onley had to let go of the wheels and ride at his own tempo, but Barguil and Van den Broek were not far behind, and the Team Picnic PostNL trio got together over the top.
Some incredible chase work from Barguil and Van den Broek brought the Team Picnic PostNL high-speed express train back to the yellow jersey group ahead of the final long climb up to Col de la Loze. On the ascent the screw was slowly turned in the yellow jersey group and one-by-one riders dropped from the group, but a determined Onley dug deep and stayed there. Gritting his teeth, Onley was able to follow a stinging attack by Vingegaard and found himself alongside him and Pogacar, as the last three riders from the GC group. Pogacar kicked once more and created a gap, but Onley fought all the way to the line to take an exceptional fourth place on the stage. With that, he gained one minute and 39 seconds on third placed Lipowitz, and now sits just 22 seconds off a podium spot in GC with just one big mountain test to go.
Oscar Onley climbing in stage 14. Sirotti photo
At the finish an empty Onley said: “I just did what I could there, I gave it my everything. On the Col de la Madeline it was tough. I felt good but I’m just not at the level of those guys when they attack really all out, and I think it showed at the end of the stage that they went pretty hard up there. The team did a super job to then bring me back ahead of the last climb. From there, I just dug in and gave what I had to the line. The gap now to the podium isn’t much, so we’ll give it everything we have tomorrow to see if we can get on there.”
Team Picnic PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “I am really happy with how the boys performed today. It was a really hard stage. Oscar couldn’t follow the moves on the Madeleine and had to pace himself a little bit there. He was with quite a few riders but unfortunately no one wanted to ride with him so over the top and after the descent we decided to wait in the valley for Frank and Warren to come back. They then could bring Oscar back to the peloton which they did in a really good way and were able to set him up for the final climb, where everything could change on its head. Oscar was really on top of his nutrition today and that put him back into the mix for that final climb. What a fantastic ride it was by him on the climb in the end, finishing fourth on the stage and we move to within 22 seconds of the podium. We can be really proud and happy of that as a team, and we’ll try our best to move up one step further.”
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Here's the report from Team Soudal Quick-Step:
The Alps, first introduced on the route of the Tour de France more than a century ago, played host to the hardest stage of this edition. Three HC climbs – Col de Granon, Col de la Madeleine and Col de la Loze – steep double-digit gradients and more than 5500 vertical meters were the many difficulties of this stage that started from Vif and concluded not far from the ski resort of Courchevel.
The action began early, on the first ascent, leaving only 30-odd riders in the yellow jersey group. A breakaway formed, but they didn’t have a chance against the chasers, led by some of the general classification teams, who caught that move around six kilometers from the top of the Madeleine. In the valley, just before a regrouping took place, three riders jumped clear and put a couple of minutes between them and the chasers.
The peloton climbing in the rain. Sirotti photo
From that trio, Ben O’Connor (JaycoAlUla) attacked with 15 kilometers to go and rode to a solo victory on Col de La Loze, where a Tour de France stage finished for the third time in the last six years. The best placed Soudal Quick-Step rider at the top on this first Alpine stage was Ilan Van Wilder.
Thymen Arensman's Team INEOS Grenadiers posted this report:
Thymen Arensman led home the Grenadiers on the queen stage in the mountains at the Tour de France to move up to 13th on the GC.
With three HC climbs over the 170km race, Arensman was quick to make the break, bridging across to the front group with 120km to go.
Thymen Arensman racing in stage 10. Sirotti photo.
The 15-man break stayed together until the second climb of the day, where Matteo Jorgenson (Visma Lease A Bike) and Arensman went clear with 100km remaining. The pair continued to work together but were caught by a chasing group 20km later.
An attack from Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease A Bike) in the favourites group behind saw him and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates - XRG) bridge over. The front group continued to pile on the pressure, with Arensman unable to hold the pace as they set off up the third and final climb of the day.
A dramatic finish saw Ben O’Connor (Jayco Alula) take the win, as Arensman came home 19th and moved up to 13th on the GC.
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And here's the Tour de France stage 18 report from Team Groupama-FDJ:
The 5,500 meters of climbing lived up to expectations. Stage 18 of the Tour de France this Thursday led to a completely shattered race between Vif and Courchevel, across three Hors Catégorie climbs. Ben O’Connor was the sole survivor of the early breakaway, while Valentin Madouas fought hard to secure 24th place on the day. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet dropped to sixteenth overall.
Three Alpine iconic climbs were on the Tour de France riders’ menu this Thursday, making this eighteenth act the clear queen stage of this 2025 edition. After forty kilometres of valley to open the day, the endless Glandon (21.7 km at 5%), Madeleine (19.3 km at 7.8%) and Loze (26.5 km at 6.5%) passes followed one another, bringing the elevation gain to more than 5,500 metres, the highest total on the Tour de France since 2013.
Following a controlled first part of the stage in preparation for the intermediate sprint, the battle for the breakaway started, but no attempt really succeeded before the slopes of Glandon. A few strong men then took the lead, and some GC favorites also went on the attack, forcing the peloton to set a sustained pace from the first difficulty of the day. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet was able to hold the wheels all the way to the top alongside Valentin Madouas, but when the Visma-Lease a Bike team decided to push hard fifteen kilometres from the summit of the Col de la Madeleine, later on, the Norman was unable to follow.
Valentin Madouas at the start of stage 14. Sirotti photo
Valentin Madouas held on a little longer, but Groupama-FDJ was unable to join the party in the final sixty kilometres of racing. Ben O’Connor took a gap on the favourites before the Col de la Loze and the Australian capitalized on it to win in Courchevel. Tadej Pogacar secured his yellow jersey, while Valentin Madouas (24th) reached the finish fourteen minutes after the winner, and Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet (33rd) nearly fifteen minutes after his teammate. The French climber now sits in sixteenth place overall.
“It was hard for Guillaume,” commented Stéphane Goubert. “He’s been fighting for several days, and he had nothing left today. His mental strength kept him going until then, but it was his legs that gave out. Valentin was very brave. It’s a shame he couldn’t join the breakaway, because that would have allowed him to achieve a better result. In the back, the guys managed their day well. There aren’t many stages left, but we have to keep fighting until Paris.” On Friday, the second stage in the Alps will take the riders to La Plagne, after only 130 kilometres but still 4,600 meters of climbing.
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