Tour de France stage 9: Michael Woods wins as Tadej Pogačar gains time on Jonas Vingegaard on Puy de Dome
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Canadian rider Michael Woods triumphed from a day-long breakaway, coming from a long way back to win stage 9 of the Tour de France atop the legendary Puy de Dôme.
The Israel Premier Tech rider overhauled American Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team) with just 450 meters to go, immediately accelerating clear and ending a superb 48km solo effort by the Movistar rider.
To compound Jorgenson’s agony, two other riders from the stage’s 14-man break—Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) and Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious)—nipped past just before the line.
Behind, the race favorites duked it out on the climb, with race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Tom Pidcock and Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) plus Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) going head to head.
Pogačar was again best, launching a huge attack with 1.5km remaining and immediately distancing all bar Vingegaard. The Dane clung onto his wheel for a few seconds, then a gap began to open and grew inch by inch all the way to the finish line.
Pogačar finished 8’19 behind Woods and 8” ahead of Vingegaard. He also gained 51” on Yates and Pidcock, 1’ on Rodríguez, and 1’07 on his teammate Adam Yates.
That saw him close to within 17” of Vingegaard, with Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) remaining third but losing time to the others and slipping to 2’40 back.
Pogačar was happy; Woods was elated.
“I am still having a pinch-myself moment,” he said. “I can’t believe I did it. I am really proud of myself and proud of my team.
“I am 36 years old, turning 37 this year. I’m not getting any younger. I’ve always talked about winning a stage at the Tour de France and I finally achieved it. I just feel so fortunate to have so many great people behind me.”
Vingegaard lost more ground but insisted that things were not slipping away on his bid to win a second Tour de France.
“It would have been nice to have stayed with him and not lose time,” he said. “I think the first week really didn’t suit me in my opinion, and there are stages that suit me better later on. To be in yellow after the first week is something I am quite happy with.
“Tadej pulled away and took some seconds, but there are stages that suit me better than this. I am looking forward to the Alps.
“It was a nice climb coming up the Puy du Dome. It was very long, and very hard today. I felt quite OK. I just tried to follow him and he was just a bit better than me today.”
Pogačar didn’t gain much time, but has taken another important psychological boost. “It’s not a victory, but it’s a small victory. I am super happy today with the nice day. It was quite relaxed until the last climb. I could feel immediately my legs were good, and I was waiting until the last 1.5km. I had good legs.”
How it played out
Stage 9 of the Tour de France ran from Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat to Puy de Dôme and covered 182.4km. The undulating stage featured high temperatures, an early intermediate sprint at Lac de Vassivière, then a total of four categorized climbs plus a number of other uncategorized rolling hills.
The fourth cat pairing of the Côte de Felletin (km 74.8) and the Côte de Pontcharraud (km. 85.7) was followed by the category 3 Côte de Pontaumur, and then the big one: the hors categorie Puy de Dôme, a 13.3km ascent averaging 7.7 percent but including sections much steeper than that.
The stage began with a tribute to Raymond Poulidor, who lived in the start town and was involved in a legendary head-to-head with Jacques Anquetil on the finishing climb in 1964, dropping his compatriot close to the top.
His grandson Matthieu van der Poel was visibly moved by the tributes to his grandfather at the sign-on. His Alpecin-Deceuninck team lined out with a modified kit paying homage to Poulidor.
The day had breakaway written all over it and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) lit the fuse after the drop of the flag, provoking a move of 14. Campenaerts aside, the group also included Americans Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), the King of the Mountains, as well as the Canadians Michael Woods and Guillaume Boivin (both Israel-Premier Tech).
Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious), Clément Berthet (AG2R-Citroën), Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), David de a Cruz and Alexey Lutsenko (both Astana Qazaqstan), Uno-X Pro Cycling duo Jonas Abrahamsen and Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X), plus Mathieu Burgaudeau and Pierre Latour of TotalEnergies also joined.
Despite chasing efforts by teams such as Lidl-Trek and Soudal-QuickStep, the break got a minute’s lead. The latter squad made a big effort to bring that gap down to 45 seconds and various riders tried to spring across the gap, including Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), past world champion Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circuis-Wanty) and former Tour winner Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), but they didn’t get close.
Powless’ EF Education-EasyPost squad was stamping out surges from the peloton, trying to protect their rider out front. This stifled attacks and allowed the break’s gap to crest more than ten minutes before the Côte de Felletin, where Powless took the single KOM point up for grabs. He did the same on the Côte de Pontcharraud, increasing his lead over second-placed Felix Gall (Ag2r Citroën Team) to 10 points.
Skirmishes splinter breakaway, Jorgenson takes advantage
There were two unwelcome distractions for riders. Gregaard punctured and had to chase back on and then, minutes later, Jorgenson had an unwelcome distraction when a bee or wasp flew into his helmet and stung him. The incident, after approximately 110km of racing, saw him seek medical assistance but he seemed otherwise okay.
With 62.4km remaining Boivan attacked, possibly to give Woods a platform to bridge across to later. However, he didn’t get far, with Campenaerts and Mohorič then trying on the category three climb of the Côte de Pontaumur. They didn’t get far and Powless got the points at the summit.
A succession of attacks were fired off after that point, with Jorgenson eventually getting clear alone with 48km remaining. He had a 12 second gap which continued to grow. Mohorič was particularly aggressive in trying to get across and all the attacking caused a split in the break, with Powless, De la Cruz and Burgaudeau joining him in pursuit and the rest of the break sliding backwards.
Mohorič continued to attack the riders with him, disrupting their progress in trying to chase Jorgenson down. With 25km to go those four were 28” back, while their former breakaway companions were at 1’07”. The peloton was a very distant 15’39 back there.
De la Cruz had bad luck with just under 23km remaining, with chain problems taking him out of the back and forcing him to stop and change bikes. That left three chasing, and they had slipped to one minute behind starting the Puy de Dome climb.
Jorgenson is brave, but Woods is better
Jorgenson tapped out a strong pace on the mountain and with 10.5km he was 1’06 ahead of the three chasers. Powless tried to go clear but, riding into a headwind, he was unable to shake them off. The wind would change direction as the route circled around the mountain, meaning he’d have a better chance to try later on.
Further back, the Jumbo Visma, Ineos Grenadiers and Bora Hansgrohe teams had been driving the pace prior to reaching the climb, with DSM-Firmenich taking them onto the lower slopes to try to set things up for local rider Roman Bardet. Jumbo-Visma then swept through and continued turning the screw.
Jorgenson went into the final three kilometers over 1’20 clear of the trio behind. Mohorič grinded clear of the other two, with Powless then slipping back behind Burgaudeau. Further back, Woods had left the second chase group and was bridging. He caught Mohorič shortly before Jorgenson reached the kite and, at that 1km to go point, was just 23” back.
He made the junction with 450m to go and immediately went past, gapping a shattered Jorgenson and winning the stage. To compound Jorgenson’s agony, Latour and Mohorič got past him before the line for second and third place.
Pogačar gains more time over Vingegaard and everyone else
Behind, the group of GC contenders had been whittled right down to Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard (both Jumbo-Visma), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Tom Pidcock and Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla). Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) was amongst those who had been dropped but just before he joined back on, Yates hammered the pace and dragged the group clear.
Pogačar launched a huge attack with 1.5km remaining and only Vingegaard could go with him. Pogačar gapped him by two bike lengths and while the yellow jersey fought to stay in contention, he gradually lost further ground.
Pogačar kept pushing all the way to the line and reached it 8” ahead of the Dane, taking back more time but not enough to grab the yellow jersey. Yates was next home, finishing just ahead of Pidcock and several seconds ahead of Rodríguez.
Source: Outside Magazine
