Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe upended the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes on Stage 6, netting both a summit-finish victory for Maxim Van Gils and the overall race lead for 21-year-old Australian neo-pro Luke Tuckwell.
The German squad flooded an early breakaway with four riders—Van Gils, Tuckwell, Gianni Vermeersch, and Callum Thornley. With Tuckwell starting the day just 1:03 down on EF Education-EasyPost’s Alex Baudin, he was the default danger man on the road. The break built a commanding five-minute buffer before hitting the final two Category 1 climbs, where the front group was shattered to pieces on the steep slopes of the Côte d’Héry-sur-Ugine. On the final ramps to Crest-Voland, Van Gils made the elite selection before Tuckwell bridged across with 2.5 kilometers remaining. The young Australian buried himself on the front, pacing the final selection to lock down his own virtual yellow jersey while teeing up his Belgian companion.
Van Gils handled the rest, launching from the slipstream of Tobias Halland Johannessen inside the final 250 meters to blast clear for his second victory of the season. Tuckwell crossed the line six seconds later in third to strip the yellow jersey from Baudin’s shoulders. The young Aussie now sits on a comfortable 1:12 cushion in the general classification.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling.com