Ben O'Connor best of the rest at Critérium du Dauphiné
'Not much you can𓄧 do' against Jumbo-Visma duo says Australian after strong showing on first mountain stage

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Ben O’Connor put himself onto the provisional podium at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Critérium du Dauphiné with a strong performance on tꦑhe first mountain stage of the race.
The Australian may not have been able 💎to live with the Jumbo-Visma duo of Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard on Saturday’s Alpine stage 7, but he was ne🦄vertheless best of the rest.
“I’m just happy ꩲthat I’m there racing with the best guys, and so close to the Tour de France,” O’Conn🍃or told reporters at the finish in Vaujany.
The first of two weekend mountain tests that bring the Dauphiné to a climax, Saturday’s stage took the ♛riders over the towering passes of the Galibier and Croix de Fer, before a much sharper final climb to the ski resort of Vaujany.
The group of favourites had already been thinned by the heat and altitude, and 3km from the top 🉐of the final climb Vingegaard caused it to explode with a viciousꩲ acceleration. Tellingly, O’Connor was the only one able to join Roglic in following.
It wasn’t long, however, before Roglic took flight. O’Connor, unable to match the acceleration, continued to go all-in, crossing the line in fourth place, 14 seconds behind Roglic as Vingegaard, who’d sat in hཧis wheel since the Roglic attack, picked him off for third place.
“I actually thought they were going to wait ꦦfor a sprint, so I miscalculated a bit, but that’s alright,” O’Connor said.
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“There’s not a lot you can do in that situation. You try and follow Primoz and if you can’t follow him there’s not a ꦯlot you can do. You still have to keep riding. It might seem like you lose, but if I sit up then someone else comes back. You just keep riding but when a team has two guys over the top, there&rs๊quo;s not much else you can do.”
Despite the two Jumbo-Visma riders finishing in front of him, O’Connor will be buoyed by the list of riders who finished behind him, with David Gaudu (Groupama-F൩DJ) finishing 13 seconds back, Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) 21 seconds down, and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) 29 seconds down.
O’Connor now lies third overall, 1:24 down on Roglic a💞nd 40 seconds down on Vingegaard, but six seconds ahead of Geoghegan H𒈔art, eight up on Caruso, and 16 up on Gaudu.
The Dauphin&eac𝓰ute; concludes on Sunday with the brutal summit finish at Plateau de Solaison, an 11km climb with an average gradient of over 9%.
&ldqu💦o;The last stage of the Dauphiné is always a bit of a fun fight,” O’Connor said. “It’s a harder climb tomorrow - like this but twice the length, so there’ll be a bit of ♊an explosion.”
Patrick ꦺis a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly a🍒s Deputy Editor.