Woods wins on the Puy de Dome
Pogacar strikes and leaves Vingegaard behind
7/9/2023, 6:13 p.m
Tadej Pogacar closed the gap to Jonas Vingegaard and the yellow jersey with an attack on the final climb. Michael Woods wins the 9th stage of the Tour de France, behind them the two cycling stars duel impressively in the overall standings.
As if unleashed, Tadej Pogacar stormed up the ultra-steep ramp of the legendary Puy de Dôme, while his great rival Jonas Vingegaard fought for every second on the volcano just behind with his last ounce of strength. The two top stars delivered another great climbing show at the 110th Tour de France – with a point victory for Pogacar. The two-time Tour winner took eight seconds from the defending champion on the Hill of Champions, but the yellow jersey remains on Vingegaard’s shoulders.
When Pogacar reached the weather station on the 1415 meter high summit after 182.4 kilometers in the stage victory of the Canadian breakaway Michael Woods, the Slovenian was completely exhausted. At the showdown he put another needle prick – but nothing more. Vingegaard keeps the yellow jersey with a lead of 17 seconds.
1.5 kilometers from the finish, Pogacar launched one of his dreaded attacks on the up to 18 percent steep climb. Vingegaard fought doggedly to catch up – and kept the damage within limits. Pogacar has once again shown himself to be in strong form after being outplayed by Vingegaard in the Pyrenees.
There the two protagonists had delivered two bitter fights in the first week of the tour. First, Vingegaard gained a lead of more than a minute on the way to Laruns, a day later Pogacar countered with the stage win at the Tourmalet stage.
Woods intercepts Jorgensen just before the goal
The day’s win went to Woods, who broke away early with 13 other drivers and in the end had the greatest stamina. He was followed by Frenchman Pierre Latour and Slovenian Matej Mohoric. German drivers played no role in the tour return to the Puy de Dôme. The best German after the 13.3-kilometer climb with an average incline of 7.7 percent was Emanuel Buchmann, who came fourth in the Tour and remains 13th overall.
Mathieu van der Poel at the start of the stage with his grandfather Raymond Poulidor’s bike.
(Photo: dpa)
Woods won 28 seconds ahead of Frenchman Pierre Latour. Only 500 meters before the finish, the 36-year-old had intercepted the American Matteo Jorgensen, who had been leading for a long time. Jorgensen had looked like the sure winner, but dropped his last drinking bottle at the five-kilometer mark – then the 65-kilogram, 1.91-meter lanky ran out of fuel.
“It’s going to be great, super tough,” Pogacar had predicted before the stage: “The field will explode.” And that’s how it happened: The other classification riders couldn’t keep up on the brutally difficult last four and a half kilometers – with an average gradient of twelve percent. Jai Hindley, captain of the German Bora-hansgrohe team and in yellow after the first Pyrenees stage, clearly lost to the two top riders, but retained his third place overall, 2:40 minutes behind.
Van der Poel moved to tears at the start
Meanwhile, the start of the stage in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat was dominated by Raymond Poulidor, the eternal second and grandfather of classics specialist Matthieu van der Poel, who died in 2019. In the former place of residence of “Poupou”, tour manager Prudhomme laid a wreath at the grave, and van der Poel was presented with an old bike from his grandfather before the starting gun, which moved the Dutchman to tears.
As the field rolled, it was the breakaways’ turn. A group of 14 riders pulled away and had a lead of over 14 minutes. That was enough to not be overtaken on the final climb.
After the first rest day on Monday, the tour will continue on Tuesday with the tenth stage over 167.2 kilometers from Vulcania to Issoire. With five medium-difficult mountain classifications, there is constant ups and downs in the Massif Central, which should accommodate a breakaway group.