Tour de France – Pogacar distances Vingegaard, Woods wins at Puy de Dome

Canadian Woods (Israel – Premier Tech) started the final climb more than a minute and a half behind individual leader Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) and only intercepted the American 500m away.

“I can’t believe it now. I’m so proud of myself and my team. It’s so special. I was almost deaf until the last four kilometers and I couldn’t even hear the silence because my ears were still smoking from the noise,” Woods said of the day’s winner in the first interview. The volcano, which the tour visited for the first time since 1988 and in which spectators were not allowed for the last four kilometers due to the nature reserve there.

“I’m going to be 37 this year and no younger, I’ve always wanted to win a stage, I’ve always talked about it. Now it’s worked out and I’m so grateful to so many people who support me,” Woods said in a fit of joy.

Like Jorgenson, he jumped right after the start in a 14-man group which was 16 minutes ahead of the peloton.

Jorgenson single-handedly broke away from this group with 47.5 kilometers to go and reached the final climb a minute ahead of the top three chasers. Woods started the climb to the Puy de Dome in a second chasing group but ended up climbing faster.

“I wish I could say it was planned that way,” admitted Woods, who missed a split in the lead group and ended up gaining a lot of ground. “At first I didn’t play my cards very well, but in the end it was like a time trial to the top. No matter how hard the task was to bring Jorgensen back, I succeeded and I’m proud of it.”

Among the peloton, Pogacar was the strongest. He attacked 1.3km from the summit and only Vingegaard was able to follow at the start. However, at the 1,000-meter mark, the Dane also had to leave a gap widened to eight seconds at the finish line.

Vingegaard therefore defended the yellow jersey with a 17-second lead over Pogacar, while Jai Hindley (Bora – hansgrohe / +2:40) remained third overall. But the Australian lost 23 seconds to Simon Yates (Gaico – Al-Ula) and 14 seconds to Carlos Rodriguez (Eneos Grenadiers) in the battle for the coronation. Rodriguez (+4:22) is now fourth ahead of Adam Yates (+4:39) and Simon Yates (+4:44).

While Vingegaard defended the yellow jersey, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck) retained the green jersey and Pogacar the white as the young favorite. Neilson Powless (EF Edcuation – EasyPost) continued to extend his lead in the mountains classification as part of today’s breakaway.

This is how the ninth stage of the Tour de France went:

Right out of the gate, Victor Campeneerts (Lotto – Destiny) started the day’s 14-man breakaway, which also included Michael Woods (Israel – Premier Tech) and Nelson Pauwels (EF Education – EasyPost) in the mountain jersey straightaway with Clément Berthet (AG2R – Citroen) in it. He was the most dangerous man in the overall standings, 26:56 minutes behind the yellow jersey. After half a minute, Simon Geschke (Cofidis) tried to join two of his buddies, but the main pitch put the trio back and 14 separated from the other by over a minute with a great effort.

Then, the other riders from the peloton tried to jump ahead, but EF Education – EasyPost kept sending a man with it, who then did not cooperate, thus disrupting the chase, so that all further attacks petered out.

After about 25 kilometers, the teams that were not represented at the front, such as Lidl – Trek, gave up attacking in the main field and the 14 runners continued to pull away. The peloton slowed and the lead gradually increased to nearly ten minutes.

Then Jumbo–Visma took over in the main field and so did the tracking work, but didn’t really chase the escapees and so the holeshot grew to over twelve minutes with nearly 60km to go.

Along the way, Powless took home the three mountain trophies in the fourth and third classes and increased his tally to 40 points, so that no one could take his mountain jersey from him that day.

Jorgenson starts soloing early

In the last 60 kilometers, the lead group lost its composure. There were now some attacks and with 47.5km to go Jorgenson pulled off on his own. His pursuers no longer got along, and the American built up a half-minute lead over the next ten kilometers in front of Matej Mohorik (Bahrain Victorious) and Mathieu Borgodo (Total Energy) as well as David de la Cruz (Astana Kazakhstan) and fourth Paulis. tracking.

At the 30km mark, the quartet was just 15 seconds behind Jorgenson, but the rest of the previous uphill group was now over a minute behind, whittling the stage-winning contenders down to five names before it looked like the final climb was over. On the descent to Clermont-Ferrand, de la Cruz was forced to stop due to a fault and fell back from the chasing group, while Jorgenson in front greatly increased his lead on the descent.

Jorgenson started the 13.3km climb to the Volcanic Cone with a minute lead over Mohoric, Powless and Burgaudeau – and with a 1:35 lead on the Woods barrier. The peloton reached the mountain after just 15 minutes.

On the climb, Jorgenson extended his lead over the chasing group, which Powless had led for a long time, and was now riding towards victory. Mohorik pulled away from his comrades, 3.5 km away, to take second place. But shortly afterwards Woods also passed Paules and Borgodeaux with plenty of momentum to chase Jorgenson and Mohoric now.

Pogacar attacks 1.3 kilometers before the finish

In the peloton, Jumbo–Visma, first with Wout van Aert and then with Wilco Kelderman, set the pace until the final 4.5 km start at the cog-rail valley station. Then Sepp Koss took the puck there and there were only a few opponents: Jonas Vinggaard, Tadej Pogacar, Guy Hindley, Simon Yates, Tom Pidcock, Carlos Rodriguez and Adam Yates.

Up front, Woods was clearly the fastest. He passed Mohoric with over a kilometer to go from the summit and also caught up to Jørnson at the 500m mark. The Canadian caught his breath briefly on the rear wheel, but then launched a furious attack and let the American stand to single-handedly take the victory.

With the favourites, Koss set the pace nearly two kilometers from the finish, beating both Hindley and Adam Yates. So when he swerved, Simon Yates took the lead while fighting for the podium. With 1.3km to go, Pogacar launched his attack and Vingegaard was initially the only one who could keep up. However, at the 1,000-meter mark, a small gap opened up and defending champion Pogacar took eight seconds to the finish line.