'One of the most unusual breakaways in the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes or indeed any week-long stage race in recent years could hardly fail to produce some unexpected results, and Friday's stage 6 saw, amongst other surprises, a 21-year-old Australian neo-pro claim the overall lead.
Third on the mountainous stage to Crest-Voland, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe racer Luke Tuckwell was able both to celebrate his teammate Maxim van Gils taking the day's honour, but also the biggest success of his incipient career to date.
Part of the 60-rider breakaway that dominated the whole of stage 6 of Auvergne, Tuckwell's placing has seen him jump from 12th on GC, 1:03 back, to leading the overall classification.
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With two days remaining, the 2025 Giro Next Gen runner-up has a 1:12 advantage on Bruno Armirail (Visma-Lease a Bike) and is 2:34 ahead of the closest GC favourite, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike).
There is no knowing how long Tuckwell will be able to stay on top of the GC rankings, not to mention the BYR competition he also now leads, given the plethora of mountain climbing yet to come. But as he told CyclingPro after the stage, even one day in yellow at a race as prestigious as Auvergne remains a remarkable achievement all the same.
"We couldn't quite believe it either, we were on this big road, we were actually expecting the breakaway to have a really big fight like the other day where it took an hour and a half to go" Tuckwell said.
"Then when this big group went, I saw a few Uno-X guys jumping as well, and I remembered what they did in the Basque Country on the final stage," he said, referring to the day when multiple riders from the Norwegian squad managed to turn a mass breakaway into an important GC challenge.
"I was there, and I was suffering, so I saw this as a good opportunity to break across. So yeah – 60 guys – it was the perfect opportunity for teams and riders, and we just smashed it all day."
Although Decathlon CMA CGM logically gave pursuit, as Tuckwell said, enough rival squads were represented to make the break not only stick, but also gain time as the stage wore on. It little mattered that this was a huge GC day; the break was determined to go for it, and their plan worked.
Tuckwell himself was the best-placed rider overall, and as he said, "I knew pretty quickly that I was the closest on GC in that group, and that I was only a minute down."
"But I tried to not think about it and spend too much energy thinking about it, until we got to this really long valley and they just absolutely ripped it, the gap went from two to a half to three and three and half, and then I started to think about it.
"But it wasn't until we got to the final climb with four minutes, and I said, 'Right now, I just do a time trial from the bottom to the top'."
Red Bull played a curious strategy on the final ascent of Crest-Voland, as stage winner Van Gils powered clear and then Tuckwell bridged across. However, their gamble paid off brilliantly, even if Tuckwell agreed it could have been risky.
"It can be, but we both knew how strong we both were, and the situation played perfectly. He was to go with [fellow breakaways] Tobias Johannessen and Pablo Torres, and they were attacking and hopefully losing some energy, and I then saw the right moment to jump across.
"Then from that moment, I know how good a sprint Maxim has, so it was an easy decision just to ride all the way to the finish for him."
It remains to be seen whether Tuckwell can remain in the lead, although his Giro NextGen results, as well as a sixth place overall in the Tour de Romandie this spring, suggest he could yet spring a few more surprises. But come what may, his day in yellow this June will remain a highlight of his career for sure.
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