Canadian Michael Woods became a legend by winning the ninth stage of the Tour de France ending at the legendary Puy de Dôme on Sunday.
After a final effort, which enabled him to close a gap of more than two minutes, the Ottawa cyclist took over the American Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) in the last few hundred meters to win solo and clinch the biggest victory of his career at the age of 36.
Survivor of a 14-rider breakaway, which included his Quebec teammate Guillaume Boivin, the representative of Israel-Premier Tech thus became the third Canadian stage winner on the Tour after his teammate Hugo Houle, winner the year last in Foix, and its sporting director Steve Bauer, who raised his arms at the first stage in 1988.
“It was very hard on this climb, even at the start I didn’t think I could win. I thought I had to give my best effort. If I didn’t win, I still wanted to give my best,” Woods told France 2.
“It’s always better to be in my shoes than in Jorgenson’s shoes. When we can see someone [devant soi], we think it is always possible. 800 meters from the finish, I saw that it was really possible so I gave everything I could. »
PHOTO THOMAS SAMSON, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Michael Woods
Frenchman Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) and Slovenian Matej Mohoric (Bahrain) respectively finished second (+28 seconds) and third (+35), pushing poor Jorgenson, who started solo fifty kilometers earlier, to fourth place. .
In the fight for the general classification, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE), 13egrabbed eight seconds from Dane Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma), who nevertheless retains his yellow jersey with a priority of 17 seconds.
With Agence France-Presse