'It was the perfect scenario for me to win' – Ben O'Connor plays the game to take long-awaited second Tour de France stage victory

After several days of trying in this Tour de France, and countless more in his previous two Tours, Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla) scored a long-awaited victory on stage 18 of the 2025 race, attacking at just the right moment to take a solo win atop the Col de la Loze.

Like he has done on four other occasions in this race, O'Connor was in the day's main breakaway, but when that was caught over the Col de la Madeleine, he regrouped, reassessed, and didn't give up.

Joining the yellow jersey group on the descent, the Australian bided his time and then put in a searing, one-push attack on the flat before the Col de la Loze, going away with Einer Rubio (Movistar) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Back in a potentially winning position, and knowing he had the legs this time, he duly dropped his companions, and soloed to his first victory in this race since Tignes in 2021.

After seeing his GC ambitions fall away in the first week – not for the first time at the Tour – winning a stage was the salve O'Connor has been searching for.

"It's a pretty cruel race," he said about his perhaps love-hate relationship with the Tour.

"I've just found myself on the deck in the first two days a few times but not really from my own fault. On stage 1 here, it absolutely wasn't my fault. I was just taken out. In Copenhagen, same thing, sprint finish, two ks to go, crash in front of me, nowhere to go. And then you had the sign crash in 2021, the Opi Omi one, so the first couple of days really haven't treated me well at all in this race before.

"But I've also won here before in 2021, I've been fourth overall, I've almost won a few times before in the last couple of years," he continued. "So getting it done today means a lot to me and I'm pretty proud of myself and the team."

More than just getting it done, it was the way in which O'Connor won which impressed, coming back from being caught to go again. The Australian has been the first to say that stages are won on legs not tactics at this race so far, but on Thursday, it was a clear-headed plan from him and the team car that delivered the win.

"Me and Mathew Hayman had a bit of a discussion on the descent of Madeleine, figuring out 'what do I do? How are you going to win from this situation?'" he explained. "You've got nothing to lose, and if you're going to win, you have to go from the bottom of the valley. Hopefully, with Matteo, that was the main thing, and that's what happened. Really then to the top of Col de la Loze it was a pretty straightforward affair, you either had it or you didn't."

He certainly did have it, and after "creating his own luck", as Hayman put it to TNT Sports, O'Connor played the Tour's Queen stage to perfection, something built off several years of experience.

"It was the perfect scenario for me to win in the end, knowing that I actually had the legs today, compared to other days in the race," he said. We got to the bottom of the climb [Col de la Loze] and it was already pretty much five thousand calories burned, after two huge, huge climbs, and that's at the bottom of the climb so there was another hour to go.

"So it was one of those situations where I know I'm good in that scenario and it's all about managing your effort, managing also when you get rid of your fellow breakaway compatriot, and you have to be sure that that's going to be the right move to kick off and go it alone. I've pretty much always won solo, so I think I've got a pretty good knack now of figuring out when to go or not."

O'Connor is now up to 10th overall, with the time he gained in Courchevel, but for the rider who has finished fourth here before, a stage win is much more important than any more minor GC positions.

"Yes, definitely," he said when asked if winning a stage is better for him than finishing somewhere in the top 10. "If you leave here finishing seventh or eighth and not having won a stage or been close, then I'd say personally yes.

"Because of what I've done in the past, you set the standard for your best performance. So getting your hands up in the air is for sure the most enjoyable thing. It's only when you complete a GC and you've done the perfect race yourself and you're proud of every day that you've tapped it out and ticked the boxes, then it gives you a different kind of satisfaction. So I'm so relieved to actually get it done today."

More than just marking an important, long-awaited win for O'Connor, Thursday's victory is also his first for his new team, and their first in this Tour, after coming close on several occasions, which was an achievement the Perth rider was pleased to tick off.

"I've been loving my time here at Jayco-AlUla and it's about time I finally got a big result on the board being an Aussie rider on an Aussie team," he said. "So this goes out to everyone within the team itself, all the boys and girls, to say thank you very much."

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