Ben O’Connor conquers Tour de France queen stage as Tadej Pogacar tightens grip on yellow

Tadej Pogacar conquered his demons on the Col de la Loze to stretch his advantage in yellow as Ben O'Connor secured his second career Tour de France stage victory, this time on the queen stage.

On the mountain where Pogacar famously cracked in 2023 as Jonas Vingegaard rode away to his second Tour crown, the Slovenian was the one gaining time two years later as a late dig at the summit saw him add 11 seconds to an overall lead that now stands at four minutes 26 seconds over his Danish rival.

Oscar Onley, the 22-year-old Scot, hung with the two main favourites until the last 500 metres of this brutal 171.5km stage from Vif.

Billed as the race’s ‘queen stage’, it took in three hors categorie climbs, with Onley struggling on the second - the Col de la Madeleine - but regrouping and ultimately gaining 39 seconds on Florian Lipowitz to move to within 22 seconds of the podium with one mountain stage left.

Stage honours belonged to O'Connor, who was in the original breakaway and attacked again on the valley road between the Col de la Madeleine and the final climb. He left Einer Rubio behind 16km from the summit of this 26km long climb, with double digit gradients and hail awaiting the riders on the narrow bike path to the summit.

The Australian came to this Tour targeting the general classification but saw those hopes dashed by injuries sustained in a stage-one crash, and has had to recalibrate his ambitions to realise his second career Tour stage win, and first since 2021.

“(The Tour) is a rough race,” O'Connor said. “It's the biggest race in the world but for sure it's the cruellest. I've wanted another victory for so many years now, I've had a lot of thirds and fourths, so close.

“I couldn't be more proud of myself and the boys that have backed me every single day this whole race, even in the pretty rough times.”

The penultimate mountain stage of this Tour was another opportunity for Vingegaard's Visma-Lease A Bike team to try to isolate Pogacar, and they made their first big moves on the Madeleine.

Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG lieutenants fell away but recovered before the climb up through Courcheval. Vingegaard tried a late attack but it was Pogacar who came over the top to edge closer to a fourth career Tour crown.

“Today was brutal,” Vingegaard said. “Five hours in the saddle. I'm not sure I've ever done such a hard stage in the Tour. I felt good, we had big plans, you could see that. We tried to go early and we did but unfortunately we could not gain any time.

“The team were amazing. I want to thank my team-mates. I think we were pretty equal, (Pogacar) took a few seconds in the end but the Tour is not over.”

Lipowitz, sitting third overall in the best young rider's white jersey, had tried to stretch his advantage with solo moves but he was caught by the main favourites with nine kilometres left, allowing Onley to eat into his advantage and move within touching distance of the podium.

“It was hard," Onley said in his usual understated fashion. “Visma set a hard pace and I just did what I could...(Twenty-two seconds), that's not much so we'll give it everything tomorrow.”