“It’s not a win, but it’s a small win. I’m super happy today, it was a really good day, quite relaxed until the last climb,” Pogacar declared, after crossing the finish line, at the top of the Puy de Dôme, eight seconds ahead of the title champion.

The youth leader and two-time champion of the ‘Grande Boucle’ (2020 and 2021) revealed that on the ascent of the volcano the final point of the ninth stage won by Canadian Michael Woods ((Israel-Premier Tech), he “felt immediately that his legs were good”, but as a precaution he decided to wait the last 1.5 kilometers before launching his attack.

“When I started the attack, I saw his shadow [Vingegaard] and I could see that he was sprinting hard behind me, but because my legs were good I accelerated more, the gap got bigger and I continued to the top,” he summarized.

The 24-year-old Slovenian admitted he was “a little scared” of the climb to the Puy de Dôme, which he couldn’t recognize as he was recovering from fractures in his left wrist suffered in a fall in Liège-Bastogne. -Liege and that his teammates said it was “very difficult, very steep”.

“But it didn’t seem like much to me,” said the second overall, 17 seconds behind the Dane in the Jumbo-Visma.

‘Pogi’, who was happy to have narrowed the gaps for the yellow jersey and put pressure on Vingegaard, explained that he would have loved to have won the stage but argued that last year when he finished second in the general classification final learned he that he “cannot contest all stage wins because the goal is the general classification”.

The Dane, for his part, tried to praise his only rival, saying that Pogacar was “unbelievably strong today”.

“He deserved to recover those eight seconds. In the end I’m glad I kept the yellow jersey and that I still have it after the first week. Before the Tour I didn’t believe we thought we had it for a while .” week,” he assumed.

According to Vingegaard, he and Pogacar are “both at a very high level”. “The stages that suit me the most are still to come, it will be a fierce battle. I will do everything I can to try to win in Paris,” he promised.

The 26-year-old runner also anticipated the first day of rest, which will be completed on Monday, saying he will “roll” and try to rest as much as possible.

Debut at the age of 36

Much was expected of the Tour’s return, after an absence of 35 years, to the volcano immortalized in collective memory by the battle between Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor in the 1964 Tour, but the favorites’ decision to win the stage ‘to be handed over’ to one of 14 The trip ‘dazzled’ the run, only ‘spiced’ by the youth leader’s attack in the final 1.5 kilometres, allowing the Slovenian cyclist from UAE Emirates to close the gap to the yellow jersey reduce to 17 seconds.

However, nothing can detract from the victory of Michael Woods, who won his debut on the ‘Grande Boucle’ at the age of 36, after an exercise in patience in the last kilometers of the climb to the Puy de Dôme, in which first , had to he trailed Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), then left the American behind to take first place on top, with a time of 04:19.41.

“I’m still pinching myself, I can’t believe I did it [ganhar]. I’m proud of myself, of my team,” summed up the Canadian, after winning two teammates in the day’s breakaway, Frenchman Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies), second at 28 seconds, and Slovenian Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious ), third to 35.

The 182.4 kilometers of the ninth stage started in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, the birthplace of the legendary Raymond Poulidor, record holder for the most appearances on the last stage of the Tour (eight), without having won an edition or even the yellow, and grandfather of the Dutch ‘star’ Mathieu van der Poel, who couldn’t hold back tears at the start, in one of the Tour caravan’s many tribute moments to ‘Poupou’.

The speed with which the breakaway came about surprised some of the teams interested in the last ride before the deserved first day of rest, who gave chase but failed to reach the group of 14 cyclists who jumped from the peloton in the very first kilometer.

Despite the quality of the elements of the various chasing groups that successively tried to reach the front runners, Woods and his partner Guillaume Boivin, Mohoric, Latour and his colleague Mathieu Burgaudeau, Jorgenson and Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), won the mountains jersey Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Clément Berthet (AG2R-Citröen), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny), David de la Cruz and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Jonas Abrahamsen and Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X) would ultimately be the only fugitives of the journey .

The margin of more than 16 minutes that the fugitives captured “assured them” that the triumph in the Puy de Dôme would belong to one of them and, perhaps because of this, the harmony of the group ended more than 50 kilometers from the goal, with the attacks one after the other and Jorgenson isolated at the front, he entered alone the 13.3 kilometers of climbing to the top of the Puy de Dôme, the volcano that returned to the Tour after an absence of 35 years.

Pursued by a trio made up of the mountain’s leader Mohoric and Burgaudeau, the 24-year-old American from Movistar started the last (and most difficult) 4,500 meters of the special category climb, already “robbed” of the public, as he is dealing with a protected landscape, with more than a minute advantage.

Winner of two stages in the 2021 Tour (and one in each of the other major Tours), Mohoric ‘threw’ his temporary companions, on a grade with an average gradient of 12%, and gave chase to Jorgenson; not only did he never reach the North American, who finished an unfair fourth place, but he was eventually overtaken by Woods.

The Canadian ‘caught’ the Movistar cyclist less than 500 meters from the top and raced to his first Tour victory at the age of 36. “I’m not going again and I’ve always thought of winning a stage in the Tour de France. In the end I did it,” he insisted, acknowledging that “he didn’t play his cards right” when Jorgenson attacked and had to to be “patient”, starting his “time trial to the top” four kilometers from the top.

Woods had long been celebrating when in the small group of favourites, which Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) had already re-entered after takeoff, attacked Pogacar at the start of the final mile, with Vingegaard struggling to reply . Without any teammate to help him, the yellow jersey kept his cool and chased his ‘runner-up’ overall and into the final edition, allowing no more than eight seconds to the 24-year-old Slovenian.

However, and having already nearly a minute ahead of his arch-rival, the Jumbo-Visma Dane will finish the first rest day of the 110th edition barely 17 seconds ahead of ‘Pogi’, in an overall in which Hindley remains third, but now distant 02.40 minutes.

In a two-speed edition, with the last two champions battling for the final yellow and the others for the podium, another day will soon be forgotten for Frenchman David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), fourth in 2022, who moved to the side of this Tour – lost about two minutes to the top two overall and is eighth at 06.01.

Even worse, Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) and Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën), also former fourth graders, who are completely out of the battle for the top 3, are increasingly reduced to the Australian of BORA-hansgrohe, to the Spaniard Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS) and the twins Adam (UAE Emirates) and Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla).

The Portuguese, as expected, had a quiet day and all came 19.56 minutes behind the winner, with Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) best classified, now outside the top 30 (it is 33.º at 38.08 minutes).

Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) is 66th, at 01:10:09, and Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) is seven places lower, at 01:14:49.

The 110th ‘Grande Boucle’ returns on the road on Tuesday, in the 10th stage, a link of 167.2 ‘bumpy’ kilometers between Vulcania and Issoire.