'It will take some time to sink in' – Luke Tuckwell hands over the yellow jersey but stands firm on Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes podium to cap 'incredible' week

“Am I actually? Oh my god.” Luke Tuckwell was still in a state of disbelief at the Plateau de Solaison. Delirious from the exertion and flanked by a six-foot marmot with sunglasses, he might well have questioned reality as he was informed that he was officially the runner-up at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

He would soon have to take off and hand over the yellow jersey, and while that’s never the greatest feeling on the final day of a stage race, defeat never tasted so sweet.

“I don’t think I have actually,” he said when asked if he realised what he’d just done. “Not at all. I think it’ll take some time to sink in.”

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Tuckwell, a 21-year-old neo-pro from Australia, was never meant to be in this position to begin with. A top-10 at the Tour de Romandie had caught the eye, but otherwise, he was completely unheralded at this level, and grinding into the lower reaches of the top 10 here was surely the ceiling of his ambitions.

But everything changed with that race-defining breakaway on Friday, and he’d given himself a shot with a spirited defense of the maillot jaune on Saturday.

On the final climb of the race, it slipped from his shoulders, but there were few surprises and few arguments as Isaac del Toro underlined his status as the strongest climber and danced off with a convincing victory on the day and overall.

That Tuckwell managed to save the podium was a victory in itself, both in the context of the week and the day. Dropped before Del Toro had even opened the taps on the hors-catégorie Solaison climb, it looked like Tuckwell could be tumbling down the standings.

But, piloted by Maxim Van Gils in the domestique/cheerleader role, he produced the ride of his life to stem the tide, inch back towards the rest of the contenders, and then start to catch some of them. He went past his closest rival at the start of the day, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), right at the end, where he’d also done enough to keep the charging Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) at bay.

“I just really, from the bottom, knew what pace I had to ride, and ah, Maxim saved me there,” Tuckwell said.

“Without Maxim, I would have been struggling so much. It’s just a collective team effort this week. I can’t describe it.

“I knew I had a minute on Auyso and 40 seconds on Jorgenson. I wasn’t too concerned about keeping the lead because I knew Isaac was so strong, so I was just trying to concentrate on getting the best GC result I could.

“To only lose one spot, that’s incredible. As a neo-pro, I could never expect this.”

Tuckwell moved to Europe in his late teens and raced for Tom Pidcock’s old Trinity Racing set-up before being snapped up by Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe last year.

After a season with the U23 ‘Rookies’ squad, in which he was runner-up at the Giro Next Gen, his debut pro season started out solidly enough with a series of top-level races, but took off at Romandie and has now been turbocharged at the Dauphiné.

“I keep improving race on race without doing anything special,” he said.

“Just enjoying my time at home, no altitude camps, just being at home in a good mental space, and I think that’s making the difference.”

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