Namibia: O’Connor climbs to ‘brutal’ Alpine stage win as Pogacar tightens grip on Tour – Sport

Ben O’Connor won stage 18 of the Tour de France with a world-class climb over three Alpine mountains on Thursday as defending champion Tadej Pogacar tightened his grip on the yellow jersey.

Australian O’Connor, 29, took off alone 15km from the finish and navigated the mountain mist to win 1min 45sec ahead of Pogacar atop the Col de la Loze.

Vingegaard crossed the line in third place, nine seconds behind the Slovenian.

“It was brutal, I’ve never lived anything so hard. The…