{"id":638856,"date":"2026-06-14T21:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638856\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T21:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:22:14","slug":"it-will-take-some-time-to-sink-in-luke-tuckwell-hands-over-the-yellow-jersey-but-stands-firm-on-tour-auvergne-rhone-alpes-podium-to-cap-incredible-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638856\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It will take some time to sink in’ \u2013\u00a0Luke Tuckwell hands over the yellow jersey but stands firm on Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes podium to cap ‘incredible’ week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAm I actually? Oh my god.\u201d Luke Tuckwell<\/a> was still in a state of disbelief at the Plateau de Solaison. Delirious from the exertion and flanked by a six-foot marmot with sunglasses, he might well have questioned reality as he was informed that he was officially the runner-up at the Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He would soon have to take off and hand over the yellow jersey, and while that\u2019s never the greatest feeling on the final day of a stage race, defeat never tasted so sweet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t think I have actually,\u201d he said when asked if he realised what he\u2019d just done. \u201cNot at all. I think it\u2019ll take some time to sink in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tuckwell, a 21-year-old neo-pro from Australia, was never meant to be in this position to begin with. A top-10 at the Tour de Romandie had caught the eye, but otherwise, he was completely unheralded at this level, and grinding into the lower reaches of the top 10 here was surely the ceiling of his ambitions.<\/p>\n

But everything changed with that race-defining breakaway on Friday, and he\u2019d given himself a shot with a spirited defense of the maillot jaune on Saturday.<\/p>\n

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On the final climb of the race, it slipped from his shoulders, but there were few surprises and few arguments as Isaac del Toro underlined his status as the strongest climber<\/a> and danced off with a convincing victory on the day and overall.<\/p>\n

That Tuckwell managed to save the podium was a victory in itself, both in the context of the week and the day. Dropped before Del Toro had even opened the taps on the hors-cat\u00e9gorie Solaison climb, it looked like Tuckwell could be tumbling down the standings.<\/p>\n

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But, piloted by Maxim Van Gils in the domestique\/cheerleader role, he produced the ride of his life to stem the tide, inch back towards the rest of the contenders, and then start to catch some of them. He went past his closest rival at the start of the day, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), right at the end, where he\u2019d also done enough to keep the charging Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) at bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just really, from the bottom, knew what pace I had to ride, and ah, Maxim saved me there,\u201d Tuckwell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout Maxim, I would have been struggling so much. It\u2019s just a collective team effort this week. I can\u2019t describe it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI knew I had a minute on Auyso and 40 seconds on Jorgenson. I wasn\u2019t too concerned about keeping the lead because I knew Isaac was so strong, so I was just trying to concentrate on getting the best GC result I could.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo only lose one spot, that\u2019s incredible. As a neo-pro, I could never expect this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"(From\n<\/p>\n

Luke Tuckwell (left) on the final podium (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Tuckwell moved to Europe in his late teens and raced for Tom Pidcock\u2019s old Trinity Racing set-up before being snapped up by Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe last year.<\/p>\n

After a season with the U23 \u2018Rookies\u2019 squad, in which he was runner-up at the Giro Next Gen, his debut pro season started out solidly enough with a series of top-level races, but took off at Romandie and has now been turbocharged at the Dauphin\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep improving race on race without doing anything special,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust enjoying my time at home, no altitude camps, just being at home in a good mental space, and I think that\u2019s making the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes and Tour de Suisse coverage. Don’t miss any of the breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight as the riders make their final preparations for Le Tour. Plus, access the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAm I actually? Oh my god.\u201d Luke Tuckwell was still in a state of disbelief at the Plateau…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-638856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}