{"id":95237,"date":"2021-07-04T21:22:10","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T21:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=95237"},"modified":"2021-07-04T22:57:40","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T22:57:40","slug":"emotional-aussie-wins-alps-stage-of-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=95237","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Aussie wins Alps stage of Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defending champion Tadej Pogacar kept control of the Tour de France<\/a> on a rain-soaked second day in the Alps as a crash-filled opening week took its toll on rivals on Sunday.<\/p>\n

"I'm sure a lot of guys suffered today," said Pogacar, who retained the race leader's yellow jersey by responding when required in the ninth stage.<\/p>\n

Both last year's runner-up Primoz Roglic and former overall leader Mathieu van der Poel dropped out of the race before the grueling 144.9km route from Cluses to Tignes.<\/p>\n

Australian rider Ben O'Connor won the stage after launching a solo break with 17km to go. Sergio Higuita was unable to follow the 25-year-old as O'Connor powered up the Col du Pr\u00e9 for the finish at Tignes.<\/p>\n

O'Connor struggled to fight back tears after his first tour win.<\/p>\n

"Just to be taking part on the Tour de France in the first place is a dream. Then to achieve a victory like this one is excellent, a great reward to everyone who has supported me over the years," O'Connor said. "It's been a wild ride."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

O'Connor finished more than five minutes ahead of Mattia Cattaneo and Sonny Colbrelli. Pogacar responded to a late attack by Richard Carapaz to defend his overall lead by finishing sixth, just over six minutes behind O'Connor.<\/p>\n

UAE Team Emirates rider Pogacar has a lead of 2:01 over O'Connor in the general classification ahead of the first rest day on Monday.<\/p>\n

Pogacar had doubts toward the end of the stage.<\/p>\n

"I was scared that I might lose the yellow jersey just the day before the rest day," Pogacar said. "I'm happy to keep it."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Van der Poel held the yellow jersey for six days but relinquished it to Pogacar on Saturday.<\/p>\n

"We decided with the team that it's in my best interests to quit the race and focus on the Olympics now," the Dutch rider said after pulling out.<\/p>\n

Roglic crashed badly during Monday's third stage in the western Brittany region and had been struggling since. The Jumbo-Visma team said the Slovenian rider would focus on new goals.<\/p>\n

"We took the decision all together with the team, it doesn't make sense to continue," Roglic said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Roglic performed well in Friday's time trial, but suffered in the 151-kilometer (94-mile) route from Oyonnax to Le Grand-Bornand on Saturday, when Pogacar seized control of the race. Roglic was already almost 40 minutes behind his compatriot before Sunday's stage.<\/p>\n

Roglic said he surprised himself in the time trial but doubts returned in the first mountain stage Saturday when he was in a lot of pain.<\/p>\n

"It's just too much for my body at the moment and yeah, I cannot race," the 31-year-old said. "I'm disappointed. I didn't plan it to be the way it is, but in the end, I have to accept it."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defending champion Tadej Pogacar kept control of the Tour de France on a rain-soaked second day in the Alps as a crash-filled opening week took […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95239,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95237\/revisions\/95239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}