Michael Woods won Stage 9 of the 2023 Tour de France for his first Tour win as he out-climbed everybody on the steep percentages on Puy de Dôme. A duel between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard took place in the last 1.5km of racing. The Slovenian reclaimed 8 seconds but the Dane retained the yellow jersey.
This is Israel – Premier Tech’s third Tour de France victory, after two wins last year.
169 riders took the start in Raymond Poulidor’s village Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat. 14 riders took off quickly: Clément Berthet (AG2R-Citroën), Michael Woods and Guillaume Boivin (Israel-Premier Tech), Matteo Jorgenson and Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Pierre Latour and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), David De La Cruz and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Jonas Abrahamsen and Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X). The peloton chased hard for a while but gave up at km 20 when they brought Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) back. The time difference was 6’ at the intermediate sprint of lake of Vassivière (km 30.4) where Abrahamsen anticipated his breakaway companions.
A time gap of 10’50’’ was posted atop côte de Felletin (km 74.8) where Powless passed first. The American was back on his mission to win the polka dot jersey this year. It was 11’40’’ when Boivin was the first rider to escape from the front group. He was reeled in after four kilometres alone in the lead. His initiative was followed by several skirmishes. Jorgenson road away 47km before the end. Mohoric, Burgaudeau, Powless and De La Cruz chased him down. They were fifteen seconds behind when De La Cruz had to stop and get a new bike because of a mechanical.
Pogacar Gains 8 Seconds
With 3km to go, Jorgenson was 1’20’’ ahead as Mohoric distanced his two companions. Woods made it across by himself and overhauled the Slovenian before the American. He rode the last 450 metres by himself to become the first non-European winner at Puy de Dôme. Pogacar sped up with 1.5km to go. Vingegaard reacted but the white jersey managed to distance the yellow jersey 600 metres before the line. Pogacar reclaimed eight seconds but Vingegaard retained the overall lead by 17 seconds before the first rest day.
“I’m so happy. Winning a stage in the Tour de France is something I’ve always wanted to do, and talked about doing, but is never something I’ve achieved and I finally did it today”, Woods said after his big win.
“The plan today was perfect”, Sports Manager Rik Verbrugghe explained. “We had different scenarios but the ideal was to have Mike and Guillaume in the breakaway, even if everyone could have been there. Today, it all worked out perfectly. I’m so proud of the guys.”
With about 45 km to go, Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team), attacked from the breakaway and got a gap. With attacks going left and right, Woods ended up in a chase group further down and as they started on the final climb, Jorgenson was more than two minutes ahead.
“I knew it was going to be difficult to bring back Jorgensen, with him being so strong, but I didn’t really worry about that,” said Woods. “I just focused on myself and wanted to go my hardest all the way to the top. It was only with 800 meters to go that I knew I had a shot because I saw him really starting to fade. I’m super happy with how it turned out.”
Team owner, Sylvan Adams, was at the team hotel, welcoming Woods as he returned. “I’m so happy for Mike, as this was the victory that was missing in his palmares. Mike showed us again that he is one of the best climbers in the world. It’s a great feeling to finish the first week of the Tour with a victory. There will be quite a nice celebration at the hotel tonight, and the rest day tomorrow will certainly be festive. And, we have two more weeks to hunt for more success. We won two stages last year. How nice would it be to exceed that lofty result? Due to my long personal relationship with Mike and the other Canadians on our team, I couldn’t be more proud. One of the best days ever for the team. Y’alla!”
Vingegaard Keeps on Top
Moving into the first rest day, Jonas Vingegaard has a solid 28 second lead over Tadej Pogacar in the GC battle. “Tadej was a little stronger at the end today”, Vingegaard admitted. “Of course, this is his favourite terrain. I managed to limit the difference to eight seconds. Luckily I’m still in the yellow jersey. We have to work hard over the next two weeks to take the jersey to Paris. It’s an intense battle at the moment. The Puy de Dôme is a pretty tough climb. The last few kilometres are quite steep. There is no time for a breather. It wasn’t my best day on the bike. Tomorrow’s rest day is welcome, but that will be the case for everyone. I think my best days are still to come in this Tour de France.”
Vingegaard continued: “When we studied the route of this Tour de France, we quickly concluded that the second and third weeks contain several stages that suit me well. In the first block up until the rest day, this was not so much the case. The fact that we now have the yellow jersey is more than satisfactory. I would have preferred to be on Tadej’s wheel for the last two mountain stages, but I can live with the way this Tour de France is going. Everyone was at their limit today. I gave everything I had, not least because my family was up on the mountain.”
Hindley Holds Third in GC
“It was a tough day and a really hard final climb, super steep and unforgiving,” said Hindley at the finish. “The temperature also played its role and I suffered a lot on the Puy de Dome. I didn’t have the best legs today and felt I need to ride my own race. I didn’t hang on to the guys as long as I could but let them go and paced myself to the finish. That worked out well and I am quite happy with the outcome of the day.”
2023 Tour de France: Stage 9 Brief Results
- Michael Woods (Israel – Premier Tech) @ 4h 19′ 41″ – B : 10″
- Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) @ 28″ – B : 6″
- Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) @ 35″ – B : 4″
- M. Jorgenson (Movistar) @ 36″
- C. Berthet (Ag2R Citroen) @ 55″
General Classification After Stage 9:
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo – Visma) @ 38h 37′ 46″ – B : 11″
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) @ 17″- B : 26″
- Jai Hindley (Bora Hansgrohe) @ 2’40” – B : 18”
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