The Tour de France‘s belated return to the Puy de Dôme after a 35-year break from the Auvergne mountain might not have produced classic GC battles of yore, such as the fondly remembered Raymond Poulidor-Jacques Anquetil battle of 1964.
However, even if there wasn’t a classic GC battle or major revelation on the volcano looming over Clermont-Ferrand, the climb still brought another chapter in the Jonas Vingegaard-Tadej Pogačar battle.
Four days ago in Laruns, the Slovenian had looked almost dead-and-buried after ceding a yawning 1:04 in the maillot jaune fight having built up an 11-bonus second lead in the opening days.
Now, after mounting successful fightbacks on the road to Cauterets 24 hours later and here at Puy de Dôme, the two-time Tour winner heads to the first rest day on Monday just 17 seconds down on the reigning champion.
“It’s not a victory but it is a small victory, so I’m super happy today,” Pogačar said after the stage, having led the GC men home with an eight-second gap to Vingegaard.
“It was a super nice day, quite relaxed until the last climb. I felt my legs immediately that it was good, but I was waiting just for the last 1.5km, just in case, but I had good legs.”
Pogačar indeed launched his move 1,500 metres from the top of the climb, accelerating on the steepest, double-digit gradient slopes from what was a group of just five GC hopefuls to set up another two-man contest in the final.
He wouldn’t crack Vingegaard fully, but metre by metre the gap grew as they raced into the final kilometre and towards the finish. Pogačar’s advantage at the line might not have been large enough to wrest the yellow jersey back, but the momentum is with him as the race hits the rest day.
“I must say that I enjoyed it,” Pogačar said of the climb. “I was a bit scared, the guys were telling me that it was so steep and so hard, but actually today we were flying uphill, so it didn’t feel so steep.”
UAE Team Emirates team principal Mauro Gianetti was on hand to give his opinion on the events of the stage at the team bus halfway down the mountain after the stage. He told the awaiting media that “every second is important” in the battle for the Tour, noting that the result was pleasing given stage 9 might well have suited Vingegaard better than his own charge.
“It was important, a stage maybe more convenient for Vingegaard,” Gianetti said. “At the end of the day, we took eight seconds. It’s not so much but I think that each second is very important so it’s…
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