Tuckwell honours late sister with stunning second place at Dauphiné

Australian Luke Tuckwell has produced the performance of his life to claim second overall at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and announce himself on the World Tour.

Isaac del Toro of UAE Team Emirates-XRG claimed overall victory in the race formerly known as the Critérium du Dauphiné after riding away from the lead group with 8km remaining on the stage.

But the 21-year-old from Orange in country New South Wales fought valiantly to remain within touching distance of some of the biggest names in the peloton and secure a first major World Tour podium of his career, ahead of Lidl-Trek’s Juan Ayuso.

“As a neo-pro, man, I could never expect this,” he told Cycling Pro Net after the race.

“I don’t think I have [realised what I have achieved this week] actually. Not at all. I think it’ll take some time to sink in.”

Tuckwell rode himself into the leaders jersey on Friday’s sixth stage, working in tandem with teammate Maxim Van Gils who went on to win the stage and carried a 42-second lead over American Matteo Jorgenson, 49 seconds over Del Toro and 1:06 over Ayuso into the final stage.

He dedicated his yellow jersey to his younger sister Antonia, who died in September after fighting a chronic illness for two and a half years.

“To have this now in the biggest one week stage race is … I don’t really quite believe it,” Tuckwell said after stage six.

“All day I was thinking of my little sister who died in September last year. I really wanted to do it for her today.

“Those last few kilometres I was really suffering but really thinking of her so yeah, this yellow jersey is in honour of her.”

With a brutal, 120-kilometre final passage from Beaufort to Plateau de Solaison-Brison on the cards on Sunday, Tuckwell was going always to have to dig deep to maintain his yellow leaders jersey.

After UAE Team Emirates set a furious pace onto the final climb, Tuckwell appeared to be struggling to hang on with 10 kilometres remaining.

Del Torro, seeing the Aussie at the back of the pack, attacked from the group of leaders and instantly established a gap, riding himself into the lead of the race.

However, with van Gils in constant support, Tuckwell rode his own race and limited his losses, holding onto second overall despite Ayuso pushing up the road to finish second on the stage.

“I just really, from the bottom, knew what pace I had to ride,” Tuckwell said.

“Man, Maxim saved me there. Really, I think without Maxim, I would have been struggling so much.”

The scale of Tuckwell’s achievement cannot be understated.

Although the 21-year-old Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider could not match the acceleration of Mexican del Toro up the brutal, 11.5-kilometre, 8.9 per cent average gradient final climb, his was a performance that will no doubt catch the attention of the biggest names in world cycling, marking the youngster out as a rider to watch.

The race, known as the Critérium du Dauphiné until a name change this year, is a traditional precursor to the Tour de France and was won last year by Tadej Pogačar.

Australian legends Richie Porte (2021) and Phil Anderson (1985) are the only Aussie riders to have won the prestigious stage race in its 78-year history.

Ben O’Connor twice finished third in 2022 and 2023, while Cadel Evans and Michael Rogers are the only other Aussies to finish on the podium.

Anderson, Evans and Porte are the only Australian riders to have ever won a major men’s World Tour stage race outside of the grand tours.

And although Tuckwell couldn’t join them on this occasion, the future certainly looks bright for him.

Already a podium finisher at the prestigious Giro d’Italia next gen in 2025, Tuckwell appears set to join Australia’s ever growing list of grand tour hopefuls over the coming years.

“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. I think that’s making the difference.”

Tuckwell is not on the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe long list of riders set to ride the Tour de France next month, with the youngster’s next race listed as being Vuelta a España.