{"id":24524,"date":"2025-07-26T21:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T21:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/24524\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T21:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T21:55:09","slug":"australian-navigates-slippery-roads-to-triumph-on-the-penultimate-day-of-the-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/24524\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian navigates slippery roads to triumph on the penultimate day of the race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIt\u2019s my first time winning, so it\u2019s pretty incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the stage, another Australian, Harrison Sweeny, had made his mark.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Groves (centre) navigates the wet conditions on Saturday.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/89cf475a4d75522d30a65fb13aeed22c18c5a619.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Groves (centre) navigates the wet conditions on Saturday.Credit: AP<\/p>\n<p>When the front group tackled the 3.6-kilometre C\u00f4te de Th\u00e9sy, Frenchman Jordan Jegat launched a solo attack, but he was then overtaken by Sweeny.<\/p>\n<p>As rain fell heavily again after 40 kilometres, Sweeny opened up a 50-second lead, only to be quickly reeled in.<\/p>\n<p>Loading<\/p>\n<p>Aside from the Australian cameos, Poga\u010dar kept things safe to maintain his healthy lead over arch-rival Vingegaard and set the stage for a triumphant finale into Paris on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The Slovenian ace has a 4 minute-24 second advantage over two-time Tour winner Vingegaard with Germany\u2019s Florian Lipowitz 11:03 behind Poga\u010dar in third overall.<\/p>\n<p>Barring a dramatic misadventure, Poga\u010dar should complete the job on Sunday and move level with British rider Chris Froome on four Tour titles.<\/p>\n<p>Victory would also give Poga\u010dar a fifth Grand Tour after winning the Giro d\u2019Italia in dominant fashion last year.<\/p>\n<p>However, Sunday\u2019s final stage is not a processional one, as is usually the case, and could potentially prove troublesome toward the end with three consecutive climbs.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday\u2019s 184.2km route from Nantua through eastern France featured three small climbs and a moderately difficult one up C\u00f4te de Th\u00e9sy.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Groves celebrates on the podium after his stage win.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/19689085c5e1c83d398e9142a766e3e1c2339cc4.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Groves celebrates on the podium after his stage win.Credit: AP<\/p>\n<p>The wet roads were treacherous at high speeds, with France\u2019s Romain Gr\u00e9goire and Spaniard Iv\u00e1n Romeo both crashing as they attempted to navigate tight turns. Both were able to continue.<\/p>\n<p>The final stage is a 132.3km ride from Mantes-la-Jolie to Paris, where the peloton will cycle up the famous Butte Montmartre three times before the final laps on the Champs-Elysees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s my first time winning, so it\u2019s pretty incredible.\u201d Earlier in the stage, another Australian, Harrison Sweeny, had&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-24524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}