Paul Seixas is hoping to become the first French winner at Tour Auvergne Rhône Alpes, formerly Critérium du Dauphiné, since Christophe Moreau in 2007, but perhaps let himself down with his post-stage remarks (Photo: Gaëtan Flamme
Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) was the star of the show on stage 6 at Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (2.UWT). The 21-year-old Australian put in a flawless performance and didn't falter when the biggest prize of his career was close.
He was the best-placed rider to get into the 60-strong breakaway. He then proved among the strongest three from it on the final climb. And he helped team mate, Maxim Van Gils, to the stage victory while seizing the yellow jersey for himself.
French phenom Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) was one of those left stranded back in the bunch. And though he eventually attacked after the leaders on the final climb, with Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), he now trails Tuckwell by 3:05 overall.
There are two very hard mountain stages to come, with summit finishes, meaning there is plenty of road remaining for the French teenager to make up the time.
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He claimed he was happy today, seeing it as a stage on which he gained time on all his general classification rivals, apart from del Torro. But he seemed unimpressed with Tuckwell's ride.
Luke Tuckwell put in a breakthrough day and now has yellow at Tour Auvergne Rhône Alpes with two stages remaining (Photo: Gaëtan Flamme)
"It was a good test and a beautiful day, even if the breakaway caused a bit of chaos," he said. "We all got caught out a bit, but, apart from Del Toro, I gained time on the favourites.
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“And that's a good thing, because I didn't know if that would be possible on such a short (final) climb.
"Three minutes on Tuckwell is a bit embarrassing. I don't know him well, but he's not a leader," Seixas added, though he is perhaps under-estimating the young Australian.
Tuckwell was 6th overall at Tour de Romandie (2.UWT) this year and 2nd overall at Giro d'Italia Next Gen (2.2U) last season. Aside from those results, and many others as an U23, Tuckwell is also clearly improving at a rate.
His ride on today's stage, even if it hadn't ended in the yellow jersey, would have gone down as one of the best of his career, especially as he kept his nerve while also performing so strongly on the climbs.
Seixas saw Tuckwell's performance, and the fact 60 riders got up the road - though none from his team - as a sign the stage was not hard enough.
"Tomorrow, I think we'll have to make the race harder. Because when we don't make it harder, there are breakaways and guys trying to get into them," he said.
"So we'll have to control it. Besides, there are six of us with two strong riders. It's a bit complicated in the mountains. But we're doing what we can."
He praised his team mates, Stefan Bisseger and Daan Hoole, saying "between them, they covered over 100 kilometres" at the front.
"They climbed the hills despite weighing 80-85 kg. That really deserves praise. Together, they kept the breakaway within striking distance. The team was really strong in limiting the gap."
