Symmetry and comparisons are commonplace in sport. With its legacy of 100 years of stage racing up and down three countries, cycling’s Grand Tours are ripe for likenesses to spring up. So, when Ben O’Connor sealed the Queen stage at Tour de France, salvaging Jayco-Alula’s race, it was reminiscent of the team’s other top Australian climber, Chris Harper’s win on the Giro d’Italia’s own Queen stage over the Colle delle Finestre in May.
It was also that day when Visma-Lease a Bike tried a long-range move to topple a UAE rider and claim the maglia rosa. Stage 18 of the Tour wasn’t quite the same, despite the valiant effort — it seems like no amount of early attacks, satellite riders, hard pacing, will snatch the maillot jaune from the back of champion-elect Tadej Pogačar.
All across the Col de la Loze on Thursday there were scenes that sparked memories of cycling’s past. One being the dogged performance of Oscar Onley (Team Picnic PostNL), the 22-year-old from Kelso, Scotland. The way Onley has battled his way through 18 stages of the Tour, never shying away from the challenge, is evocative of his former teammate, Romain Bardet, and the Frenchman’s run of top GC results in the 2010s.
The now-retired Bardet never gave in, even when the odds were stacked against him, up against the might of Team Sky in their heyday. Today, Onley was really up against it, and from none other than the five-time Grand Tour winner, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). It was clear Red Bull were looking to shake things up as Roglič, starting the day in fifth, 0:38 behind Onley, attacked on the first climb of the day, the Col du Glandon. In fact, Onley started the day in an unappealing Red Bull sandwich, with Florian Lipowitz on the final spot on the podium and leading the Scot in the white jersey competition.
Lipowitz had attacked before the start of the Col de la Loze (Image: Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
As the only team with two GC leaders left in the race, Red Bull were hoping an exchange of attacks would not only strengthen Lipowitz’s podium spot, but also catapult Roglič into fourth, and even possibly threaten the duopoly of Pogačar and Vingegaard. At the summit penultimate climb of the day, the Col de la Madeleine, things were not looking good for Onley, he was 1:57 behind the yellow jersey group, which also contained Roglič. Lipowitz was in between them, but much closer to his Slovenian teammate.
A valley stalemate ensued and Lipowitz went up the road as it began to tilt towards the Col de la Loze. All the while, Onley’s Picnic PostNL teammates did an exceptional job pacing him, and crucially a number of UAE and Visma riders back to the yellow jersey group. Suddenly, being in the same group as Roglič and with Lipowitz dangling out in front, things really started to look better for Onley.
But few would have expected a rider, who was dropped on a climb almost an hour previously, would then have recovered and could hang on for 26km of ascent. The prevailing wisdom in cycling is that if you have been dropped once, you will likely be again. But this wasn’t a normal stage — it wasn’t even a normal mountain stage — two-time winner Vingegaard described it as the hardest Tour stage he has ever done. As Lipowitz began to crumble by himself up front and Roglič was showing signs of not being all that comfortable in the yellow jersey group, Red Bull’s big day out was beginning to splinter.
In the end it cracked. The attritional nature of the stage took it out of Roglič and Lipowitz in the unforgiving playground of La Loze’s final 10km, especially when Pogačar and Vingegaard started to play.
Onley hung on to the two main GC riders, losing only 13 seconds to Pogačar and four to Vingegaard. It was the greatest climbing performance of his career, in the Queen stage of the Tour no less. He distanced Roglič by 0:48 and Lipowitz by 1:39. While others started to collapse under the pressure from Pogačar and Vingegaard, Onley held his own and on a day that backfired for Red Bull. He now finds himself 22 seconds off the podium of the Tour de France. It’s a position his tutor, Bardet, knows all about.
