Tour de France: Pogacar wins stage 9

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Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) took the race leader's yellow jersey in Laruns after another aggressive day of racing in the Pyrenees shook up the overall classification at the 2020 Tour de France.   

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) won the stage, beating Roglic and Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) in a close sprint finish, with Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren) finishing in the same time.

Hirschi bravely attacked alone early on the Col de la Hourcère, 80km from the finish, but was cruelly caught just 1.6km from the line. He kicked off the sprint but was passed by Pogacar and Roglic in the final metres.

The leaders distanced Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) near the summit of the Col de Marie Blanque when Pogacar attacked on the double-digit gradients and only Bernal, Roglic and Landa could go with him. Yates was caught by a Movistar-powered chase group on the descent but finished 54 seconds down, slipping to eighth overall.

As the riders travel to the French coast for the first rest day on Monday, Roglic leads Bernal by 21 seconds, with Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) third at 28 seconds, the Frenchman limiting his losses on the Col de Marie Blanque along with Bauke Mollema and Richie (Trek-Segafredo), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling) and Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic).   

Pogacar moved up to seventh thanks to the stage winner's ten-second time bonus and is now at 44 seconds and very much an overall contender. Pogacar put his hands on his head after winning the stage, shocked and overjoyed to have won his first Tour de France stage at just 21.

"It's really crazy - after that hard day to win the stage. It's really incredible.

"Thanks to my teammates, they did a really good job all day. I'm really happy to pull that victory.

"I wanted to gain as much time as I could in GC, but in the last 800 metres I knew the stage win was worth 10 seconds. I was focusing for the sprint and I just went full gas."

Pogacar is the second Slovenian rider to win in Laruns after Roglic won in 2018. The two are rivals but seem to have struck a pact to work together, despite almost crashing when they touched wheels at the summit of the Col de Marie Blanque.

"Primoz is really good - he's won before, he'll win more. I hope we can do together great things," Pogacar said.

"I'm really happy overall so far. Sure, one stage there was a little mistake but actually we take two stages so it's really good so far."

Roglic pulled on the Tour de France leader's yellow jersey for the first time in his career but kept his cool.

"It's beautiful - it's the first time that I've had it,"  Roglic said of the crisp and clean yellow jersey on his shoulders.

"Everyone dreams about it, when you start being a rider, to wear it. So I'm super happy, also for the guys because they did an amazing job. It's also for them.

"I thought I would also win today but chapeau for Tadej. Something can always be better but it's not every day that you get the yellow jersey."

Roglic shrugged off any pressure and extra responsibility as race leader after just 9 of the 21 stages.

"It wasn't really much different until now. I think we race with the mission to try to win it in Paris. We just need to maintain focus and do our best every day," he said.

Roglic's defence of the yellow jersey and the second week of the Tour de France begins on Tuesday with a flat stage on the exposed roads of the La Rochelle marshlands.

It is followed by stages across central France to Poitiers and a mountain finish in the Massif Central on the Puy Mary before a stage to Lyon and then the final week in the Alps and that stage 20 time trial to La Planches des Belles Filles in the Vosges.

How it unfolded

The Tour de France peloton remembered the late Nicolas Portal at the start in Pau, with the Ineos Grenadiers on the front with his family to remember their former directeur sportif who tragically died of a heart attack in March, aged just 40.

The weather was also grey and melancholic but there was a real sense the 153km stage would spark more attacks and a further shake-up of the overall classification. The stage also offered hope to the attackers, who were ready to shake off their fatigue and roll the dice yet again before the first rest day on Monday.

Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) was tucked in behind the race director's car during the long neutralised sector and was one of the first to attack. However, the rolling roads south of Pau inspired others and saw a super-fast first hour, with Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb), Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2r La Mondiale) also trying their hands early on.

Cosnefroy was first to the top of the early categorised climb to take the points, while Hirschi overcooked a damp descent but kept his bike up and on the road.

After a fast 30km of racing, even Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) tried his hand but there would be no freedom for the Frenchman to strut his stuff with an average speed of 47km/h for the first hour.

Meanwhile, Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) went out of the back early and was unable to hold the pace. The broom wagon hovered behind him and he eventually threw in the towel with 80km to go. The Italian underwent surgery and had a stent placed in his iliac artery last year and has struggled to return to his previous Grand Tour level but his loss leaves UAE Team Emirates without a key rider to help Pogacar.

As the Col de la Hourcère neared with 100km to go and 50km covered, other teams and other tactics emerged.

Luke Rowe (Ineos Grenadiers) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) shadowed each other as they tried to place riders in the attacks for later in the stage. Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) made similar attacks but the peloton closed them all down.

Stefan Küng and David Gaudu were up front for Groupama-FDJ when the 8.8 per cent gradient of the Col de la Hourcère began to hurt. Soon after Thibaut Pinot tried to make sense of his Tour by helping his teammates. He did what he could to ensure Sébastien Reichenbach and David Gaudu were in the selection.

However, Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) was even stronger and surged away alone with 90km to go as Jumbo-Visma took control of the peloton rather than Adam Yates' Mitchelton-Scott team.

A chase group formed behind Hirschi, with Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic), Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates), Reichenbach, Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Daniel Martínez (EF Pro Cycling), Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers) and Omar Fraile (Astana) working together and offering their teams different tactical options and ideas.

Hirschi led the race over the top of the mist-covered summit of the Col de la Hourcère and dived down the other side to push out his advantage. With 60km to go and back in the valley roads, he led the chasers by 3:15, with the peloton at 4:20.

Hirschi and the chasers rolled through the intermediate sprint point with 54km to go, with Trentin and Felix Großschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) fighting for the minor points. Van Aert led the peloton across the line in 11th place to take five points. He's only 27 points down on Peter Sagan now and so his green jersey challenge is still a possibility. However, his role remains that of a talented domestique and he worked hard again for Roglic to close the gap to the leaders.

Col de Marie Blanque

Hirschi crested 3rd category Col d'Ichere with a lead of 4:15 on the peloton but was showing fatigue. He started the Col de Marie Blanque, taking a gel and a slightly 'sticky' bottle from the team car to ease the pain. Behind Jumbo-Visma led the chase and brought the gap to two minutes.

As the steep gradients of the Col de Marie Blanque began to hurt, the first cracks emerged in the GC group. Van Aert moved off the front after another huge effort. Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) had already cracked and would go on to lose over four minutes and any chance of overall victory this year.

With 20km to go and as the double-digit gradients began, Pogacar attacked to blow the GC group apart and reveal who was in the red.

Adam Yates was alone and exposed. He struggled as he tried to limit any losses, while other riders went out the back. Up front, Tom Dumoulin helped Roglic close the gap to Pogacar, and Bernal and Mikel Landa were also there. Nairo Quintana (Arkea Samsic), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) were a little further back.

Pogacar tried two further attacks and even Bernal had a dig but they reached the summit of the Col de Marie Blanque together as a quartet with Landa and Roglic.

Hirschi passed the summit 20 seconds ahead of them to take the eight bonus seconds. Pogacar tried to surge to take second place and five seconds but Roglic came past him to snatch the precious seconds. The two crossed paths and touched wheels but Pogacar quickly apologised and accepted his error.

The descent was fast and Hirschi took huge risks but the Roglic group could soon see him and hunted him down. The six-rider Guillaume Martin chase group could also see them but failed to close the gap in a late pursuit.

Inside the final kilometre, Roglic led the group to try and gain as much time as possible as Pogacar waited for the sprint. Hirschi bravely tried to come from behind but went a little early, setting up Pogacar for his victory.

With Roglic in yellow it was a historic day for Slovenian cycling, with the feeling there is a lot more to come from the pair in the two weeks left to race.