Tour de France: Onley lays down a marker as Pogacar keeps grip on yellow

The Guardian

6 days ago

Oscar Onley edged closer to a surprise podium finish in the 2025 Tour de France, as Tadej Pogacar moved further ahead of second-placed Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour's toughest mountain stage to Col de la Loze.
Urged on by the band of OnleyFans at the roadside, the 22-year-old from Kelso produced the ride of his young life in the Tour's queen stage, won by Ben O'Connor, to climb to within 22sec of a top-three placing.
'That's not much,' Picnic PostNL's Onley said of the slim margin between him and the third-placed German, Florian Lipowitz of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, on the eve of the Tour's final summit finish at La Plagne. 'We'll give it everything tomorrow.'
After being dropped by Pogacar and Vingegaard towards the top of the Col de la Madeleine, Onley had stayed calm and finally rejoined the main group on the valley roads leading to Courchevel. 'Visma set a hard pace,' Onley said of Vingegaard's team, 'I just did what I could.'
He added: 'I wouldn't say I kept my cool, but I still felt good. I'm just not at the level of those guys when they attack. It showed at the end when they went pretty hard up there.'
While Onley continued to confound expectations, ghosts were laid by Pogacar, whose last visit to La Loze in 2023 when he uttered the infamous words 'I'm gone, I'm dead' ended in a catastrophic defeat by Vingegaard. This time, it was the Slovenian that left the Dane behind, the Emirates XRG rider attacking in the final 500m to distance both Vingegaard and the inexhaustible Onley on the climb's steepest grades.
Friday's Stage 19 of the Tour de France has been shortened after an outbreak of contagious nodular dermatitis in cattle near the Col des Saisies forced authorities to cull livestock and restrict access to the area, race organisers said on Thursday.
The 129.9km stage from Albertville to La Plagne was due to include the ascent of the Col des Saisies, but the climb has now been scrapped to avoid the affected zone, ASO said in a statement."In light of the distress experienced by the affected farmers and in order to preserve the smooth running of the race, it has been decided, in agreement with the relevant authorities, to modify the route," ASO said.
The ceremonial start will take place as planned in Albertville, followed by a 7km neutralised section before the official start an hour later than planned. Riders will rejoin the original course shortly before Beaufort, at the 52.4km mark of the initial route.
As a result, the stage will now be reduced to 95km. The shortened stage still finishes in La Plagne and comes just two days before the Tour concludes in Paris on Sunday. Reuters
Vingegaard may still cling to the dream of an unlikely victory, but Pogacar now seems keen for it to end. 'It's not over yet and I will try my best tomorrow, the day after and the day after, to keep my lead,' he said, before adding: 'I cannot wait that it's all over.
'This is the point where I ask myself: 'Why am I still here?' It's so long these three weeks. You just count the kilometres to Paris, but I try to enjoy every day on the bike as much as I can. The fans really help. It's still nice to ride, even in the third week, when you're all tired and annoyed by everybody around you, and you just want to go home.'
Lizzie Deignan has announced her immediate retirement from professional cycling after sharing news that she and husband, Phil, are expecting their third child. The 36-year-old former world champion had previously said 2025 would be her final season but has now called time on a career in which she recorded 43 professional wins, among them victories at Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders and the Women's Tour. Deignan took the world title in 2015, a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2014 and Olympic silver at the London Games in 2012.
Deignan took a career break in 2018 for the birth of her daughter, Orla, returning to win a second Women's Tour title in 2019 before her victories at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Course by Le Tour de France followed in 2020, and a brilliant solo win in the first Paris-Roubaix Femmes came in 2021. A second career break came in 2022 for the birth of her son, Shea.
Deignan's last race was the Copenhagen Sprint last month, which came a couple of weeks after she competed in the Tour of Britain Women for the last time. Speaking before that race, Deignan said she was proud to have been part of an era of unprecedented growth in women's cycling. She said part of what had kept her racing on was the growth of new races that she wanted to be part of, having not had those opportunities earlier in her career."I think if I had retired any earlier than now I would have had regrets, definitely, sitting at home watching all these opportunities unfold," Deignan said. "I can be really proud and pleased with the last five, six years of my career where I've got to feel truly like a professional, to be respected and to have opportunities equal to the men." PA Media
O'Connor does not win often but when he does, it is on the biggest of stages. As the Australian, riding for Jayco–AlUla, ground his way towards the mist-shrouded finish line, the 29-year-old, winner of a similarly cold and damp Alpine stage to Tignes in 2021, let out an exultant cry.
It was, as Vingegaard admitted later, a 'brutal' stage. 'Five hours in the saddle,' he said. 'I'm not sure I've ever done such a hard stage in the Tour before.'
Even before the stage began, Pogacar and Visma-Lease a bike had been at odds after the defending champion collided with one of his rival's team cars as he rode to the start in Vif. 'We were going to the start line, cruising behind the car,' Pogacar said. 'Maybe he wanted to check my brakes. I was not ready because I didn't see any reason that he wanted to stop urgently, so I crashed into the car. But it's OK.'
Clearly the Slovenian suffered no ill effects. Whatever they throw him, he is just too strong for his rivals. With one more summit finish to come, on Friday at La Plagne, it would take an unprecedented collapse for him now to lose the race.