Right then. That’s all from me. Here’s your new race leader, Primoz Roglic. Tomorrow’s a rest day, but we’ll be back with more on Tuesday when stage 10 starts 385km or so north of Laruns on the Île d’Oléron, for an almost entirely flat 168.5km rip eastwards. Bye!
Jeremy Whittle has filed his report on today’s ninth stage:
Jumbo-Visma rider Primoz Roglic took the overall lead from Adam Yates in the 2020 Tour de France as part of a Slovenian double as UAE Emirates’ Tadej Pogacar won the 153km ninth stage of the race in Laruns. But defending champion Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) also showed that he is close to his best form, as he finished fourth on the stage and moved into second place in the overall standings.
“It’s really crazy after that hard day to win the stage,” Pogacar said. “Thanks to my teammates, who did a really good job all day. I wanted to gain as much time as I could on GC and I knew that a stage win was worth 10 seconds, so I just went full gas sprinting.”
Much more here:
Today’s stage rankings:
- Tadej Pogacar 3h 55s 17
- Primoz Roglic
- Marc Hirschi
- Egan Bernal
- Mikel Landa
- Bauke Mollema +00.11s
- Guillaume Martin
- Romain Bardet
- Richie Porte
- Rigoberto Uran
- Nairo Quintana
Adam Yates was in the next group across the line, 54sec behind the leaders.
Here’s the closing sprint from another angle:
🦅 An aerial look at @tamaupogi's impressive win after a tough, open stage!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 6, 2020
🦅 Vue aérienne de la victoire impressionnante de Tadej Pogačar après une étape difficile et ouverte !#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/JmakL631EW
Here is the top 10 of the general rankings at the end of stage nine:
- Primoz Roglic 38h 40m 01s
- Egan Bernal +21s
- Guillaume Martin +28s
- Romain Bardet +30s
- Nairo Quintana +32s
- Rigoberto Uran +32s
- Tadej Pogacar +44s
- Adam Yates +1m 2s
- Miguel Angel Lopez +1m 15s
- Mikel Landa +1m 42s
Tadej Pogacar is happy:
It’s really crazy after that hard day to win the stage. Thanks to the teammates, they did a really good job all day. I wanted to gain as much time as I could in GC but in the last few hundred metres I was focusing for the sprint. I don’t know what happened. I’m really happy so far, but only one stage was a little bit mistake. It’s really good so far.
Adam Yates has a chat:
A hard day. The break didn’t really go until the climb. I did my best. I gave everything I could do hang on. I think we can be proud of what we did, and freshen up now on rest day. I did what I could, but there were some guys in a better condition than be. It is what it is. I said from the beginning there’s a lot of stages in the last week that suit me quite well, so I’ll have a go and I’ll see what I can do.
Primoz Roglic takes the yellow jersey
Roglic has a 21-second lead over Bernal at the top of today’s GC. Adam Yates, who wore the maillot jaune at the end of stage eight, is now just over a minute behind.
Hirschi finishes third, with Roglic also stealing ahead of him by a quarter of a wheel. The Swiss slaps his handlebar in frustration after his heroic solo break, and also heroic last-gasp sprint, failed to bring the stage win he wanted.
🏆 🇸🇮 @TamauPogi sprints to victory! 🏆
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 6, 2020
🏆 🇸🇮 @TamauPogi s’impose au sprint ! 🏆#TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/cmlLGzjAhD
Tadej Pogacar wins stage nine!
Hirschi goes for broke 200m from the line, and for an instant it looks like he might actually do it, but at the last Pogacar pips him!
Updated
500m to go: Roglic is at the front, but there’s nothing between them.
1km to go: He has held on, is sitting at the back of that GC group and might be thinking about an outlandish sprint victory.
1.5km to go: Hirschi has been caught. Can he hold on to those four and make it a five, or will be now be dropped?
2km to go: Hirschi seems to be resigned now to being caught. His lead is about five seconds.
3km to go: Hirschi looks over his right shoulder. He has The Fear.
4km to go: Hirschi has a 16-second lead and is losing time. The chasing quartet have just, for the first time, glimpsed him up ahead.
4.5km to go: There are four riders in the group immediately behind Hirschi, and it’s a formidable group composed as it is of Roglic, Bernal, Pogacar and Landa.
5.5km to go: As it stands, Roglic has a 15-second lead over Bernal in the general classification.
7km to go: Hirschi reaches the foot of the mountain with a lead of nearly 30 seconds. It’s pretty much flat from here to the end.
8km to go: We get a shot of Yates, who is taking it easy on the descent and making no effort to catch up with anyone.
11km to go: Hirschi certainly hasn’t given up, and he is extending his lead on the descent. Adam Yates is 1min 20sec behind him now, and dropping out of the conversation.
13km to go: The four riders just behind Hirschi are Roglic, Pogacar, Bernal and Landa.
16.5km to go: Hirschi’s lead is below 15 seconds now, and the finish line is looking pretty distant right now.
18km to go: Roglic picks up five bonus seconds for crossing the peak second, and Pogacar gets a couple, but only after clipping Roglic’s rear wheel while he was checking the situation behind him and very nearly veering off the road!
Roglic was three seconds behind Adam Yates in the general classification after stage eight, so with those bonus seconds he is the leader on the road, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything Yates is going to do about it.
18.5km to go: Bernal’s break lasted only a matter of seconds. He’s in the chasing group, though, along with Uran, Quintana, Bardet, Mollema and Martin.
19km to go: In the group behind Hirschi things are getting a little tactical, which means their focus is not on catching the leader. The Swiss will be first over the Marie Blanque, and then the race really is on.
20km to go: Egan Bernal goes for it! Hirschi’s lead is down to a little over a minute.
20km to go: Tadej Pogacar throws himself off the front of the peloton in search of those seconds. Tom Dumoulin and Primoz Roglic try to keep up. This is bad news for Adam Yates, in the yellow jersey, who has been dropped from the leading group!
20.5km to go: The first three riders over the Col de Marie Blanque will get time bonuses of eight, five and two seconds respectively, so even if Hirschi is destined to be over first, the identity of the rider at the front of the peloton could be important in GC terms.
21km to go: Less than 3km to the top and Hirschi leads by 2min 20sec. He’s looking, quite understandably, a little less effortless than he was an hour or so ago.
22km to go: Hirschi passes the Moulin de Barescou, which appears to be a campsite rather than an actual mill, sadly. His lead is 2min 45sec, or thereabouts, and has stabilised a bit ahead of the big climb. “Interested to see if the GC battle kicks off on the Col de Marie Blanque,” writes Mark Seddon. “It’s not that long a climb by tour standards, but it is nasty (with very steep sections). I climbed it a while ago (very slowly!) - not fun!”
23km to go: Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the col de Marie Blanque. In a word, ouch.
#TDF2020 Empieza esta subida con rampas interesantes: el Col de Marie Blanque. pic.twitter.com/HT7P16Og4p
— Ciclismo Colombiano (@ColCiclismo) September 6, 2020
24km to go: Down to 2min 55sec, and the climb to come sounds vicious.
25km to go: Hirschi leads by 3min 10sec. However it ends, the 22-year-old has had a fabulous day and clearly has chops.
28km to go: Jumbo-Visma are chasing now, and Hirschi’s lead is down below 4min and falling. The question is whether they have time to destroy it altogether.
37.5km to go: Hirschi completes the climb, with a lead of around 4min 16sec. It’s now downhill again for a while, before the category 1 climb to Col de Marie Blanque, the day’s last significant bump, which will be crested in about 19km.
“Have you noticed he’s using his extra long cycling computer as an aero extension?” wonders Zachary Gomperts-Mitchelson. “He’s gripping the end with both hands and using it to maintain his TT position! It’s wobbling a bit alarmingly but it is 100% something he’s thought about in advance and one of the funniest and dare I say effective, considering how long he’s been able to maintain his position, bit of loophole exploiting I’ve seen in cycling. I wonder if others will copy him? There’s a battery of rules against handlebar extensions but seeing as it looks like this one might snap off with a strong enough pull maybe others won’t dare to emulate.”
39km to go: These are key moments, you’d have thought. Hirschi is 1.5km from the top of the climb and since it started his lead has gone down by only about five seconds.
41km to go: As I press send on that update, the peloton does indeed catch that chasing group. Jumbo-Visma continue to control the peloton, and it’s about time for them to reveal their hands.
Updated
42km to go: There are now only 15 seconds between the chasing pack and the peloton. They are clearly not destined to chase anyone down today. Hirschi’s lead is now about 4min 15sec, and if he can attack the next climbs in anything like the way he did the last couple this could actually happen for him today.
50km to go: The peloton crosses the spring line in Arette, with Matteo Trentin pulling clear at the last to come eighth in the sprint and snaffle a bit of bonus pointage.
54km to go: Hirschi crosses the sprint finish line. The next significant waymarker is the category three climb to the Col d’Ichère, which is about 17km away.
55km to go: The chasing group is down to seven, after Groupama’s Sébastien Reichenbach was dropped on the descent from the Col de Soudet, and he’s now been caught by the peloton.
57km to go: There’s an intermediate sprint in Arette, which Hirschi will reach in a few minutes. Arette is the only significant stop in this year’s tour that shares its name with a well-known brand of tequila*. It is also a funny place to do sprinting, given that it sounds indistinguishable from the French word arrêt, which means stop.
* I have not checked this “fact” in any way.
61km to go: Hirschi leads by three minutes now, and doesn’t seem minded to slow down.
70km to go: We’ve not seen much of Adam Yates, the race leader, today. He seems well placed though, tucked in behind the Jimbo-Visma gaggle at the head of the peloton.
71km to go: Hirschi is out of the cloud now, which must come as a relief. He’s still extending his lead, now at 2min 15sec.
73km to go: It doesn’t look very clement out there today. It’s windy, cloudy, there are some damp camera lenses, and it’s just 17C.
Updated
75km to go: Hirschi has crested the Col de Soudet, with a lead now at nearly 2min.
76km to go: David Gaudu rides into a spectator! The fan is wearing a polka-dot poncho, looking like an overgrown schoolkid impersonating a ghost in a slightly modified white sheet, and standing on a grass verge, a few feet off the road, as the chasing group went past, and suddenly the Groupama Frenchman was cycling straight into them.
76km to go: Hirschi has 1km of limbing to go, and then a long descent to the day’s sprint in Arette, about 19km away. “ Disappointed you hadn’t spotted that, by complete coincidence, the names of the chasing group - Barguil-Reichenbach-Martinez-Formolo-Kamna-Gaudu is shared with the Barguil-Reichenbach-Martinez-Formolo-Kamna-Gaudu boson, the sub-atomic particle discovered in the late 1990s,” writes Paul Griffin. “Initially thought to hold a vital secret to the formation of gravity, it was quickly classified as the first Mundane particle, having no influence on the universe, no meaningful interaction with others and generally serving no discernible purpose. Insert your own punchline here...”
77km to go: Hirschi’s lead is now 1min 45sec, and it continues to grow. Behind him is a group of eight, who themselves are about 40sec ahead of the peloton.
78km to go: Here’s what the next bit of today’s stage (and, indeed, the last bit) looks like in profile.
🏔 1⃣c Comienza la subida al Col de la Hourcère
— Tour de France COL (@letour_col) September 6, 2020
📈 11,1 km al 8,8%
Tras este puerto de primera, los corredores tendrán que encadenar una subida al Col de Soudet de 3⃣c
+ Info ➡ https://t.co/XzA0RSdv6p#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/fRt1UFrZXN
Fabio Aru abandons
79km to go: Fabio Aru has indeed been swept up by the broom wagon, and is out of this year’s Tour!
80km to go: There’s a fast and short descent before they head back uphill to the Col de Soudet, a category three climb that ends in about 5km.
84km to go: There’s no stopping Hirschi, who continues to stretch his lead as he enters the cloud that has settled over the top of the Col de la Hourcere. It’s now up to 1min 15sec.
85.5km to go: Hirschi, 1.5km from the top of the climb, is still on his own, with a lead now of nearly a minute. “Since you mentioned it the cheese in the western Pyrenees is pretty fabulous,” writes Dan Levy. “You can buy vache, brebis or mixte. Often sold at roadside shacks. Possibly not today.”
86km to go: Back in the peloton, Jumbo-Visma’s yellow jerseys seem to be controlling affairs from the front, with five or six of them up there.
86km to go: Dani Martínez is trying to catch Hhirschi, though he’s still a way off. Indeed now it looks like he’s rejoined the chasing group, which has been augmented by the arrival of Jonathan Castroviejo.
87km to go: After a brief spell in the leading pack Pinot has dropped back and keeps dropping, and the TV cameras catch him being left behind now by the peloton, and moving very slowly indeed.
87km to go: Hirschi looks pretty comfortable at the front, but behind him is a group of six riders, including Gaudu and Basrguil, who are chasing hard. Pinot has dropped back into the peloton.
89km to go: Still 5km of climbing to go. Marc Hirschi goes out in front of the leading group.
Updated
92km to go: Thibaut Pinot has joined the leading group. Their lead remains small - about 15 seconds at last count - but there’s certainly some quality there.
93km to go: Nine kilometres from the peak of the climb and they’re still racing very tactically at the front. There’s a small group leading at the moment that includes Warren Barguil and David Gaudu.
Updated
95km to go: ITV come back from an ad break and Anthony Turgis of Total Direct Energie is standing at the side of the road looking angrily at his bike.
Chute d'Anthony Turgis dans le peloton ! #TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/K1WRNutRSe
— Le Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) September 6, 2020
97km to go: That group has now been caught, and after a lot of this and that we’re back with one big bunch.
@Simon_Burnton hopefully Pinot will recover, and his awful run of luck will end. If he stays in the tour, he might be able to grab a stage win. He sounded quite despairing yesterday, but I am confident there's a Grand Tour win for him one day.
— MaliciousA (@MaliciousA) September 6, 2020
Updated
99km to go: Cavagna’s solo break hasn’t lasted, but he joins a group that includes three Sunweb riders.
101km to go: Rémi Cavagna has gone off alone at the front, and has done so more successfully than anyone else so far.
102km to go: They reach Lanne-en-Barétous, which looking at the day’s profile looks like the relatively gentle start of the eventually troublesome climb to the col de la Hourcere (though officially it’s still 7km away).
106km to go: More musketeer-related action (see also Pau, earlier): they go through Aramits, home of Henri d’Aramitz, real-life musketeer and inspiration for the Alexandre Dumas character Aramis.
108km to go: Fabio Aru is now so far behind he’s been caught by the dreaded broom wagon. Here he is telling a TV camera operator to do one:
At least Fabio Aru believes in social distancing....from the moto AND the rest of the peloton#SBSTDF #TDF2020 LIVE NOW | @SBS @SBSOnDemand | https://t.co/SdHOwOcRe1 pic.twitter.com/ufoBHVi6qU
— CyclingCentral (@CyclingCentral) September 6, 2020
110km to go: Mads Pedersen is at the head of the peloton at the moment. Apparently he’s the 28th rider to attempt a breakaway so far today.
Updated
112km to go: Lots of toing and froing, but no real going. Elsewhere, Lennard Kämna is reported to have accidentally ridden into a cornfield but is now back on his bike.
118km to go: They go through Oloron-Sainte-Marie. It was in the news last year after robbers ram-raided the fabulous cathedral and stole a number of silver chalices and other goodies.
123km to go: They go through Goès. Fabio Aru is about 1km behind the leaders, for reasons that are unclear.
130km to go: No big breakaway yet, but the peloton is strung out and it’s only a matter of time. There’s still about 20km before they hit the start of the first big climb of the day, the Col de la Hourcère.
133km to go: Nobody’s being allowed to go yet. Roche is caught, and Julian Alaphilippe launches himself clear now.
137km to go: Hirschi has been caught now, but his Sunweb teammate Nicolas Roche has taken over the lead.
⚪🔴 One more point for the polka dot jersey Benoit Cosnefroy
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 6, 2020
⚪🔴 @BenoitCosnefroy fait honneur à son maillot à pois et prend le point au sommet de la Côte d'Artiguelouve.#TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/bcRO12Yr2u
140km to go: Marc Hirschi goes off on his own on the descent, going fast enough to not only open up a seven-second lead by the time he hits the bottom but also to very nearly go straight into a caravan parked on the side of the road at a bend.
143km to go: First over the top in the end is Benoit Cosnefroy, who already has the polka dot jersey.
144km to go: Thomas de Gendt hits the front. Max Schachmann sits just behind. They’re heading up the Cote d’Artiguelouve, a category four climb.
146km to go: They pass through Artiguelouve, which apparently means “clearing of wolves” in Béarnese, a local dialect of Gascon. What, though, is clearing of wolves? Sounds a lot like wolf-hunting, doesn’t it? There are still wolves in the Pyrenees, so they obviously didn’t artiguelouve terribly efficiently.
148km to go: Time for a quick recap on yesterday’s action, when Britain’s very own Adam Yates held on to his maillot jaune while the stage was won by Nans Peters. You can read all about it here:
While William Fotheringham has also written about the current state of play:
There were two surprises after Wednesday’s finish when Adam Yates pulled on the yellow jersey of the Tour de France, which he wore into the first Pyrenean stage of the race on Saturday. The obvious shock was in the way that Yates was awarded the maillot jaune – the passive verb is important here – when Julian Alaphilippe and his Deceuninck–Quick-Step team made an unlikely unforced error that earned the French favourite a time penalty. More disconcerting perhaps was the fact it has taken the best part of seven professional seasons before either Adam or his twin brother, Simon, wore the most fabled jersey in cycling.
Much more here:
152km to go: And they’re off! Casper Pedersen of Sunweb launches himself off the front at the very start.
Before the rollout in Pau there was a tribute to Nico Portal, the Team Ineos sporting director and son of Pau, who died suddenly in March at the age of 40. Representatives of Team Ineos started at the front and led the tour through his hometown. The rollout is due to end, and proper racing to start, in just a minute or two.
Hello world!
Right, let’s get the important stuff out of the way. Here’s William Fotheringham’s pocket guide to today’s stage, which starts at Pau - birthplace of Isaac de Porthau, real-life musketeer and inspiration for Alexandre Dumas’s Porthos, fact fans - and ends at Laruns. I can’t find much to tell you about Laruns, but according to cheese.com it “is home to numerous artisanal cheesemakers who primarily produce cheese from ewe’s milk. However, locals also produce versions of cheese from cow’s and goat’s milk.” So, there’s that:
Stage nine, 6 September, Pau – Laruns, 154km
A break should succeed today: there will be an intense battle until it forms and it will get whittled down on the Col de Marie-Blanque 19km from the finish. One for a climber who can finish well, and isn’t high up overall: if Ireland’s Daniel Martin or Uran are not in the top 20 they will target this one.
The stage has several bumps and sprints, and looks approximately like this:
And here are the leaders in the general classification:
1 Adam Yates Mitchelton-Scott 34hrs 44mins 52secs
2 Primoz Roglic Team Jumbo-Visma at +3s
3 Guillaume Martin Cofidis at +9s
4 Romain Bardet AG2R la Mondiale at +11s
5 Egan Bernal Ineos Grenadiers at +13s
6 Nairo Quintana Team Arkea-Samsic
7 Miguel Angel Lopez Astana Pro Team
8 Rigoberto Uran EF Pro Cycling all at same time
9 Tadej Pogacar UAE Team Emirates at +48s
10 Enric Mas Nicolau Movistar Team at +1m
11 Emanuel Buchmann Bora-Hansgrohe at +1m 25s
12 Mikel Landa Meana Bahrain McLaren at +1m 34s
13 Richie Porte Trek-Segafredo at same time
14 Bauke Mollema Trek-Segafredo at +2m 12s
15 Tom Dumoulin Team Jumbo-Visma at +2m 20s
🏆 Jerseys and rankings after stage 8 🏆
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 5, 2020
🏆 Maillots distinctifs et podiums après l'étape 8 🏆#TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/DSmIkQ4kQs
