The 36-year-old Canadian won on Sunday at the top of the Puy de Dôme for the return of the Auvergne giant to the Tour.
He was only a year old when he last passed the Auvergne giant. For the return of the Tour to the puy de Dôme, 35 years after his last passage on the volcano, Michael Woods won at the age of 36, Sunday July 9, at the top of the giant of Auvergne, while behind, Tadej Pogacar recovered 7 seconds on Jonas Vingegaard who remains in yellow. The Canadian thus offers his first stage victory on the Tour.
Starting from the start of this 9th stage in a breakaway made up of 14 riders, Woods was a scarecrow and a good leader of the team.Israel-Premier Tech, the Canadian assumed his status in this final without spectators. Already winner of two stages on the Vuelta and the Route d’Occitanie a few weeks ago, the Canadian was however more than a minute behind at the foot of the Puy de Dôme on the head of the race.
Woods is out of the woods
In front of him, Matteo Jorgenson, who started alone 47 kilometers from the finish, performed a solo number chased by a group composed in particular of the polka dot jersey Neilson Powless (EF Education – Easy Post).
This was without taking into account the hunting skills of Michael Woods. Gradually, he grabbed his meters behind, taking turns Matej Mohric (Bahrain Victorious) then Matteo Jorgenson. 500 meters from the finish, the Canadian could escape, alone in the lead, and afford this first stage victory on the Tour, he who is 36 years old at the twilight of his career. “When you see the front runner, you think it’s possible when he had to turn around. At 800m, I saw that it was doable so I gave it my all“, explained the runner from Israel-Tech to the microphone of France 2 after the race. Behind, the Frenchman Pierre Latour, also author of a good comeback, finished 2nd ahead of Matej Mohoric and Matteo Jorgenson, finally 4th.
Pogacar keeps the ascendancy
Behind, the battle for the general took time to settle. On the terrible final ramp of the puy de Dôme (last 4 kilometers at more than 11% on average), it was Tadej Pogacar who was the only one able to light the fuse without really outdistancing his rival Jonas Vingegaard, this last clinging a few meters behind the white jersey. In the end, the Slovenian takes only 8 seconds from the Dane, who keeps his yellow jersey for 17 seconds, but takes a little more advantage over his rival.
Despite arriving at home in the Massif Central, Romain Bardet (DSM) was, like David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), picked up very early on the slope of the volcano. The two Frenchmen conceded more than a minute on their adversaries for 3rd place and saw their dreams of a podium slip away.