Tour de France: Michael Woods wins on Puy de Dome as Tadej Pogacar chips away at Jonas Vingegaard’s lead

In the closing moments of the Tour de France’s return to the Puy de Dome for the first time in 35 years, it was unclear whether Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) had timed his attack to perfection or left it a little too late.

Riding in pursuit of the American lone leader Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) – who struck out from a breakaway of 14 riders around 47km from the finish of the undulating 182km stage through the Massif Central – the Canadian veteran had to battle back from a second chase group over two minutes back.

With Tour of Oman winner Jorgenson looking destined to take a memorable victory, Woods calmly went about his business as he picked off his fellow escapees one by one. The 36-year-old then blasted past Slovenia’s Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) with 2km remaining before catching Jorgenson inside the final 500 metres.

The crescendo of the entire spectacle played out on a narrow, twisting road carved out on the side of the dormant volcano of Puy de Dome – on a steep double-digit ramp running alongside a funicular train and in eerie silence away from the raucous spectators further down the climb.

Woods held on to take his first ever win in the Tour de France, with the unlucky Jorgenson being agonisingly caught by both Frenchman Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) and Mohoric before the line.

Similar drama played around 10 minutes later when the fight for yellow intensified as Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) attacked the race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) in the closing two kilometres to take another eight seconds from the Dane’s diminishing lead in the general classification.

After digging deep to limit his losses, defending champion Vingegaard now takes the yellow jersey into the first rest day – but with a narrow lead of just 17 seconds over the white jersey and two-time Tour winner from Slovenia.

In the battle to finish best-of-the-rest, Australia’s Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) battled back to keep his third place but now trails Vingegaard by 2:40. The top five is completed by Spain’s Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) at 4:22 and Britain’s Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) at 4:39.

No sooner had race director Christian Prudhomme waved the flag at kilometre zero than the first attacks started to rain down. And soon a solid break of 14 riders established a small gap over the peloton, with the polka dot jersey, the Tour of Oman winner, a previous Milan-Sanremo champion, and two Astana Qazaqstan team-mates of the sadly departed Mark Cavendish all in the mix.

Vingegaard’s indefatigable Belgian team-mate Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) led one of the numerous attempts by riders trying to bridge over – making for a fast and tense start to the stage. But once general consent was given, the break’s gap ballooned – reaching a maximum 16 minutes.

American Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) consolidated his lead in the king of the mountains competition by taking maximum points over the first of three categorised climbs. And polka-dot Powless formed part of the four-man chase group that emerged after Jorgenson went clear from distance with his brave and bold move.

Powless was joined by Mohoric, Frenchman Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) and the Spaniard David de la Cruz – one of two Astana Qazaqstan riders (along with Alexey Lutzenko) looking to give the team a morale-boosting result following the dramatic departure of the veteran British sprinter Cavendish.

Luck did not look down favourably on De le Cruz, however, and his chances were scuppered with a dropped chain on the fast descent to the foot of the final climb of Puy de Dome – making its first appearance in the Tour since 1988.

Jorgenson held a gap of one minute over the chasing trio at the start of the 13.6km climb while Woods was part of a second group another minute in arrears alongside Clement Berthet (AG2R-Citroen), Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny), Jonas Abrahamsen and Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X), Latour and Lutsenko.

The waves of fans lining the road and animating the race did justice to a climb that once played host to that legendary shoulder-to-shoulder tussle between Raymond Poulidor and Jacques Anquetil in 1964. Indeed, the late Poulidor was very much the flavour of the day, with the stage starting in his hometown of Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat.

For most of the climb, it looked like Jorgenson would follow in the tyre-tracks of the Dane Johnny Weltz, the last rider to win on the mythical climb 35 years previously.

But as a grimacing Mohoric put in one final push to distance Powless and Burgaudeau, Woods could be seen in the background dancing his way back in contention. This was away from the glare and growl of the spectators, who were not allowed on the final 4km of the climb – incidentally the steepest part with an average gradient of 12.2%.

Woods, who had benefited from team-mate and compatriot Guillaume Boivin’s work in the break earlier in the stage, put his head down and went for broke. The gap came tumbling down accordingly – and once he passed Mohoric, he could see his quarry struggling just 20 seconds further up the road.

The sight of Woods passing him so close to the finish must have hit Jorgenson like the infamous kidney punch received by Eddy Merckx on this same climb in 1975. The American’s head indeed slumped and he would end up out of the podium positions.

“I’m still having a pinch-me moment – I proud for myself, I’m proud for my team. It’s special,” Woods said.

“It was deafening until about 4km to go and then it was silence. My ears were still ringing but I still had a long time to think and to suffer and to look up the road and to try close the gap on Jorgenson.

“I’m turning 37 this year, I’m not getting any younger. I’ve always talked about winning stage on the Tour de France and I’ve finally achieved it.”

Praised for his grit, determination and sang-froid, Woods admitted that he had actually made a hash of his tactics and was merely trying to seek a silver lining on the Puy de Dome.

“I wish I could say it was all planned,” he said. “I wanted to be with Jorgenson on the front. It was just the way the cards were played. It was really challenging and I knew I was probably the most marked man in that group.

“I ended up not playing my cards super-right and had to be patient. I waited to 4km to go and thought about doing a time trial to the top – not necessarily to win. I told myself, however hard I went, it didn’t matter what the result was, I’d be proud of myself. But my hardest was being able to bring back Jorgenson, which was nice.”

Fans were treated to two races for the price of one as the GC battle erupted into life in the wake of Woods’s win. Once again, Jumbo-Visma looked to have prepared the terrain for their leader, but just as at Cauterets-Cambasque, Vingegaard was unable to pull the trigger. Worse, still, his big rival did.

Pogacar’s attack may not have been definitive, but it exposed another chink in Vingegaard’s armour and saw the Slovenian slash another eight seconds off the Dane’s lead going into a much-needed rest day.

The Tour continues on Tuesday with the 167.2km Stage 10 from Vulcania to Issoire – another rolling day in the Massif Central with five categorised climb ahead of a fast downhill dash to the line. It’s a potential day of ambush where the Tour may not be won, but it could be lost.

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