In 2022, months after a last-minute deal with Israel Premier Tech saved his career from an unfortunate end, Australian veteran Simon Clark took his first stage win at the Tour de France and said it was "very special" to be able to thank his team. He said it was.

In January, the 35-year-old, left behind by the closure of Qhubeka-NextHash, was the last rider to sign with Israel Premier Tech this season.

Then, another six months later, Clarke ran a last-minute line at the Tour de France in Allenberg to great success.

Clark, who has a mountain and stage win at the Vuelta a España and was briefly the leader at the 2015 Giro d'Italia, said, "It was definitely a challenging winter for me with the closure of Qhubeka. I never gave up."

"The solution came late. I am very grateful to Israel Premier Tec for giving me this opportunity and I tried to repay them with as many (UCI) points as possible. To give them their first stage win in the Tour de France is very special for me."

While Clark's victory will be a welcome boost to Israel-Premier Tech's fight for enough points to remain in the WorldTour, he said that as a team, Jacob Fuglsang has set a "more relaxed" goal in the overall classification He said the team's "more relaxed" target for Jacob Fuglsang in the overall classification gives everyone on the team a chance to challenge for a stage win at the Tour.

"It's always a tricky combination of personal ambition and riding for the team leader. I've been in the Tour many times for Rigoberto Urán [EF's former teammate] and I have good memories of him finishing on the podium [of the Tour de France]. But in this race, I have a bit more of an open mentality about going for the stages."

Clark joined a breakaway that day with Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarque Wanty-Gobert Materie), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Total Energies), and Nielson Powles (EF Education-Easy Post), Even though he was still in it at the finish, Clark said he was worried that the hard-chasing former two-time Tour de France winner would join the lead group for the win. Not to mention Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), who is also a good contender for victory on the cobbles.

"I knew they would catch me, but as we saw in Paris-Roubaix, it is very difficult to close the gap on cobbled stages, even 10 or 15 seconds. Plus, everyone contributed to the breakaway," he said.

However, the final battle for the line between four riders nearing exhaustion devolved into an unpredictable and epic battle, with each member of the breakaway group cutting the last card, and Clark won. Clark won.

"It was long. But I told myself there was no need to panic, to stay as calm as possible."

"Powles took the first gap, but luckily Edvard decided to chase him.

"Taco passed Edvaldo at 350 meters and I knew now was my chance. Octopus passed Edvaldo at 350 meters, so I figured now was my chance. I still can't believe that was enough."