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 solo leader Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) and only intercepted the American with 500 meters to go.

“I can’t believe it right now. I’m very proud of myself and my team. It’s very special. I was almost deaf until the last four kilometers and couldn’t even hear the silence because my ears were still smoking from the noise.” , said day winner Woods in the first interview on the volcano, which the tour visited for the first time since 1988 and on which no spectators were allowed on the last four kilometers because of the nature reserve there.

“I’ll 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 for the many people who have my back,” said Woods in a frenzy.

Like Jorgenson, he jumped right after the start into a 14-man lead group that was up to 16 minutes ahead of the peloton.

Jorgenson broke away alone from this group with 47.5 kilometers to go and reached the final climb a minute ahead of the first three pursuers. Woods started the climb to the Puy de Dome in a second chasing group but ended up climbing the fastest.

“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 well, but in the end it was like a time trial to the top. No matter how tough the task was to bring Jorgensen back, it worked and I’m proud of that.”

Out of the peloton, Pogacar was the strongest. He attacked 1.3 kilometers from the summit and only Vingegaard was able to follow at first. At the 1,000 meter mark, however, the Dane also had to leave a gap that widened to eight seconds by the finish line.

Vingegaard therefore defended the yellow jersey with a 17-second lead over Pogacar, while Jai Hindley (Bora – hansgrohe / + 2:40) stayed in third place overall. The Australian, however, lost 23 seconds to Simon Yates (Jayco – AlUla) and 14 seconds to Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) in the battle for the podium. Rodriguez (+4:22) is now fourth overall 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 best youngster. Neilson Powless (EF Edcuation – EasyPost) continued to extend his lead in the mountains classification as part of the breakaway of the day.

This is how the 9th stage of the Tour de France went:

Right out of the gate, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto – Dstny) initiated the day’s 14-man breakaway, which also included Michael Woods (Israel – Premier Tech) and Neilson Powless (EF Education – EasyPost) in the mountain jersey immediately and in which Clément Berthet ( AG2R – Citroen) was the most dangerous man for the overall standings, 26:56 minutes behind the yellow jersey. Half a minute behind, Simon Geschke (Cofidis) tried to join two of his companions, but the main field brought the trio back and the 14 breakaways pulled away by more than a minute with a lot of effort.

After that, other riders from the peloton tried to jump forward, but EF Education – EasyPost kept sending a man along, who then didn’t cooperate and thus disrupted the pursuit, so that all further attacks fizzled out.

After around 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 front runners continued to pull away. The peloton slowed down and the lead gradually increased to almost ten minutes.

Jumbo – Visma then took over responsibility in the main field and thus the tracking work, but never really chased the escapees and so the hole grew to over twelve minutes with almost 60 kilometers to go.

Along the way, Powless secured the three mountain prizes in the 4th and 3rd categories and increased his tally to 40 points, so that nobody could take his mountain jersey from him that day.

Jorgenson starts the solo early

In the last 60 kilometers, the lead group lost its composure. There were now some attacks and with 47.5 kilometers to go Jorgenson pulled away alone. His pursuers were no longer in agreement and the American gained a half-minute lead over the next ten kilometers in front of Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) as well as David De La Cruz (Astana Qazaqstan) and Powless fourth follow up.

At the 30km mark, the quartet were just 15 seconds behind Jorgenson, but the rest of the former leading group were now more than a minute behind, reducing the stage-win contenders to five names before the final climb seemed to be. On the descent to Clermont-Ferrand, De La Cruz had to stop due to a defect and fell back from the chasing group, while Jorgenson at the front significantly increased his lead on the descent.

Jorgenson started the 13.3-kilometre climb to the volcanic cone with a one-minute lead over Mohoric, Powless and Burgaudeau – and a 1:35 lead over Woods’ septet. The peloton only reached the mountain 15 minutes later.

On the climb, Jorgenson extended his lead over the chasing group, which Powless had led for a long time, and was now heading towards victory. Mohoric drove away from his two companions with 3.5 kilometers to go to secure second place. But shortly afterwards Woods also got past Powless and Burgaudeau with a lot of momentum to now chase Jorgenson and Mohoric.

Pogacar attacks 1.3 kilometers before the end

In the peloton, Jumbo – Visma, first with Wout van Aert and then with Wilco Kelderman, set the pace until the steep final 4.5 kilometers started at the valley station of the cog railway. Sepp Kuss then took over the scepter there and only a few opponents were still there: Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, Jai Hindley, Simon Yates, Tom Pidcock, Carlos Rodriguez and Adam Yates.

At the front, Woods was clearly the fastest. He passed Mohoric with more than a kilometer to go from the summit and also caught up with Jorgenson at the 500 meter mark. The Canadian caught his breath briefly on the rear wheel, but then he launched a hard attack and left the American standing in order to pull through to victory on his own.

With the favorites, Kuss set the pace up to almost two kilometers from the finish, shaking off both Hindley and Adam Yates. So when he swerved, Simon Yates took the lead as he was fighting for the podium. With 1.3 kilometers to go, Pogacar launched his attack and initially Vingegaard was the only one who could keep up. At the 1,000 meter mark, however, a small gap opened up and Pogacar then took the defending champion eight seconds to the finish line.