After coming runner-up and fourth in last year’s Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italian respectively, Ben O’Connor’s fourth Tour de France hadn’t been great until Thursday’s queen stage. At the top of Col de la Loze, the purple-clad Australian earned his first win for Jayco-AlUla, his second Tour triumph and fourth Grand Tour stage victory. He also plucked the Souvenir Henri Desgrange and moved up to 10th on GC. Yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar caught everything Jonas Vingegaard threw at him.

The GC Situation Overnight

Lipowitz’s podium and white jersey had two minutes of buffer from Onley, who would be wary of his fourth dangling only 38 seconds in front of a very consistent Primoz Roglič. Over two weeks the Red Bull Slovenian inched his way from 10th to 5th. In the lower half of the top 10, remarkable Irishman Ben Healy had his sights on Tobias Halland Johannessen’s eighth.

1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 61:50:16
2) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Visma-Lease a Bike) +4:16
3) Florian Lipowitz (Germany/Red Bull) +9:03
4) Oscar Onley (Australia/Picnic-PostNL) +11:04
5) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Red Bull) +11:42
6) Kévin Vauquelin (France/Arkea-B&B Hotels) +13:20

Healy is the real dealy. Photo: Sirotti

The Course

The ascents returned in spades, with three very long HC climbs in the Alps: 21.7-km Col du Glandon, 19.2-km Col de la Madeleine and the summit finish of 26.2-km, 6.5-percent Col de la Loze.

This is a crazy parcours. Image by La FlammeRouge

Surely the eighty KOM points would lure Lenny Martinez, who lost the classification lead to the yellow jersey but still wore the dots. Yep, Martinez was part of the escape procession going up the Col du Glandon, along with Roglič, seventh place Felix Gall and Michael Woods. The breakaway was in pieces on its 21 kilometres and not too far ahead of the peloton.

There were a few minutes when Martinez lost contact with the Roglič-Gall group, but he came back, took the stickiest bottle possible and claimed the maximum 20 points. Woods couldn’t hang on and tipped over in a chase group a minute later. The peloton was 2:00 in arrears. On the descent of the Glandon, the yellow jersey group caught Woods.

Martinez actually free wheeled on the first of three sticky bottles.

Just after three-time Vuelta a España runner-up Enric Mas abandoned, Martinez was caught and spat out by the peloton. Now it was Stage 15 winner Thymen Arensman, another habitual escapee, threatening the top of the mountains classification.

Col de la Madeleine

The Pogačar bunch trailed Roglič-Gall by 3:00 when HC 2 kicked up. Visma-Lease a Bike was the engine of the funicular, drawing the breakaway nearer and dropping Vauquelin. Healy then faded away, losing his chance to move up.

Sepp Kuss took off with Vingegaard, Pogačar and a struggling Lipowitz on his tail. Five kilometers from the top, the Dane attacked, the Slovenian locked on and the German lost contact.

Vingegaard’s first dig on Madeleine.

Vingegaard and yellow shadow met Roglič and company four kilometers from the top, receiving a long pull from Matteo Jorgenson. Arensman relented and went back to Lipowitz. The KOM points Pogačar received at the peak set him five points off of Martinez.

Col de la Loze

Col de la Loze is where the world champion famously imploded in the 2023, declaring, “I’m gone. I’m dead.” The extra carrot at the top was the Souvenir Henri Desgrange.

Lipowitz and Arensman made it back to the yellow jersey on the long drag to the foot of Loze, where Jorgenson, Einer Rubio and O’Connor bolted on the group. Lipowitz lit out after them. The Jorgenson trio was 2:30 ahead of his teammate Vingegaard when the climb began, Lipowitz 1:30 ahead.

A smart move from Lipowitz?

Incredibly, Onley, Vauquelin and a dozen others linked up with the yellow jersey group under Picnic-PostNL’s impetus. Now Pogačar and Vingegaard had teammates again.

Jorgenson was ordered back to his team captain, latching on to Lipowitz in no-man’s land for a stretch. Things looked promising for O’Connor and Rubio. The Australian then attacked the Colombian 16 km from the crest. Victory awaited in the mists.

When UAE-Emirates took over the favourites group, Vauquelin dropped away and Lipowitz was corralled with 8 km remaining, the German then cracking with 5 km to go.

Vingegaard attacked inside 2 km to go, parried by Pogačar and Onley. The Slovenian then did his own move with 800 metres to go, going past Rubio and snatching back the polka dots by placing runner-up.

As far as Friday goes, ASO asked, “How would you like five categorized climbs including two HC’s squeezed into 129 km?” Summit finish is La Plagne. Lipowitz now holds third by “Onley” 22 seconds.
2025 Tour de France Stage 18
1) Ben O’Connor (Australia/Jayco-AlUla) 5:03:47
2) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +1:45
3) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1:54
2025 Tour de France GC
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 66:55:42
2) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Visma-Lease a Bike) +4:26
3) Florian Lipowitz (Germany/Red Bull) +11:01
4) Oscar Onley (Australia/Picnic-PostNL) +11:23
5) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Red Bull) +12:49
6) Felix Gall (Austria/Decathlon-AG2R) +15:36