Fantastic Solo Victory on Stage 18

Ben O’Connor scored a fantastic solo victory at the Col de la Loze on Stage 18 of the 2025 Tour de France. It was an exceptional ride from the Australian Jayco Alula rider.

Pogacar sneaked past Einer Rubio in the last 500m to take second place. Vingegaard was third and Oscar Onley fourth, with Rubio in fifth.

Col du Glandon

Primoz Roglic went over the top of the first climb, the Col du Glandon, in a lead group with Lenny Martinez, Tim Wellens, Matteo Jorgenson, Thymen Arensman, Ben O’Connor, Raul Garcia, Gregor Muhlberger, Einer Rubio, Felix Gall, Bruno Armirail, Alexey Lutsenko and Andreas Leknessund.

Martinez took the KOM points at the top.

Col de la Madeleine

Jonas Vingegaard attacked from the GC group 4.7km from the top of the Madeleine. He and Pogacar quickly bridged across to the lead group.

Here, Jorgenson was waiting for his Visma team leader. The American did the work on the front of the group.

The lead group over the top of the climb was Vingegaard, Pogacar, Roglic, Gall, O’Connor, Arensman, Jorgenson and Rubio.

Col de la Loze

O’Connor, Jorgenson and Rubio got a gap over the rest of the GC group in the Tarentaise valley, between the Madeleine and Col de la Loze.

The yellow jersey group slowed right down, and Florian Lipowitz overtook them. It seemed to suit Vingegaard and Pogacar for their domestiques to get back to them.

Ben O’Connor forged ahead alone up Col de la Loze, building a lead of 3min20 over the yellow jersey group. At the top, he still had 1min45 over the second-placed finisher, and could celebrate a fantastic stage victory.

Vingegaard attacked in the last kilometre and was followed by Pogacar and Onley. Pogacar counter-attacked the Dane and took a few more seconds in finishing second on the day.

Oscar Onley took 1min39 out of Florian Lipowitz, which leaves him just 22s behind the German, who is in third place on GC.

Video Highlights

These are video highlight of Stage 18.