While Pogacar and Vingegaard watched each other, O’Connor outsmarted them and took the win

O'Connor cleverly capitalized on the chess match between the two giants and slipped away in the valley leading to the Col de la Loze. “On the Glandon, I tried a lot early in the stage, but it all came back, and I felt good in the group of favorites. I saw Felix Gall and Primoz Roglic go, and I thought: ‘Just do it, follow them.’”

“On the Glandon and later at the bottom of the Madeleine, I was almost done physically, but these are the days where you have to be mentally resilient and trust yourself. Today I really needed confidence—from myself and from the team,” said the overjoyed leader of Jayco AlUla, who also moved up to tenth place in the general classification.

Towards the end, he had to keep an eye on Pogacar and Vingegaard, but they kept each other, and O'Connor, in check. “I was afraid they would start attacking behind me and that I would blow up in the final kilometers. Once Rubio was dropped, I just didn’t want to be caught by the yellow jersey group in the last five kilometers. When I heard I still had three minutes with three kilometers to go, that felt so good.”

And so, after Tignes, he can now add La Loze to his list of triumphs. “It’s special to do it again here in the Tour de France. Last time in Tignes was a complete shock, but this time I really enjoyed it. I had an amazing day today, U was finally myself again after 17 days of struggling,” said O'Connor, who crashed on the opening day of the race.

He admits he’s still feeling the effects. “My knee is completely wrecked now, it really hurts. It lingers and the pain only stops at the end of the race. But to finally pull it off… I’ve been chasing that victory since day 10, and it was frustrating when Simon Yates won. Today’s moment is just incredible. You always want another win in the Tour, and you can never get enough of it.”