CYCLING: At the end of a breathless and exhausting day for the peloton, Michael Woods won at the Puy de Dôme during the ninth stage of the Tour de France, this Sunday 9th July
At the end of a breathless and exhausting day for the peloton, Michael Woods (Israel Premier Tech) won at the Puy de Dôme during the ninth stage of the Tour de France, this Sunday 9th July. As for the favourites, Tadej Pogacar managed to grab eight seconds from the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard.
Thirty-five years later, Woods won at the Puy de Dôme. Survivor of the morning breakaway, the Canadian Michael Woods (36) was one of the seventeen riders already born during the last ascent of the mythical Auvergne pass in 1988. Behind him, the battle between favourites did not upset the classification generally, even if Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) is slowly but surely approaching the golden tunic.
And the escape flew away
Fourteen men determined to leave only crumbs to the peloton took off from the first kilometre. With a fifteen-minute lead at the 100th kilometre of the race, the breakaway, amputated by two of its initial limbs, quickly confirmed its victory.
In this group, the polka dot jersey Neilson Powless (EF Education – Easy Post), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) and the American Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) stood out, caught 450 meters from the summit by Woods which ended a lonely and overambitious 45 kilometre raid.
The Canadian plugged a two-minute hole at the foot of the terrifying slopes of the Puy de Dôme – the last four kilometres of which are at more than 12% on average – to come and win for the first time on a stage of the Grande Boucle.
Pogacar in the wheels of Poulidor?
Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) could only observe the back of his main rival, Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), in the final of the queen ascent. But despite this clear domination of the Slovenian, only eight seconds have been scraped from the yellow jersey, which is now 17 seconds ahead of Pogacar in the general standings.
In 1964, during the mythical stage of the Puy de Dôme, Raymond Poulidor, second overall, had also deposited the yellow jersey Jacques Anquetil in the last kilometres of the Auvergne volcano, without however managing to steal his first place.
The podium moves away for Gaudu
Pierre Latour, 2nd in the stage, was the only French light during the end of the first week of the Tour. David Gaudu, too fair, finished almost a minute behind Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), third overall. The leader of the Groupama-FDJ formation has accumulated a total delay of six minutes over Jonas Vingegaard.
Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich), the regional of the stage, could not hang better than a 26th place, one rank behind David Gaudu. Overall, only Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), ninth, came between the two Frenchmen.
