Race report
And with that, I’m going to get on my proverbial bike. Bye!
Here’s Jeremy Whittle’s report on a dramatic day on the Tour:
Ben O’Connor of Australia won a cold and wet ninth stage of the Tour de France, from Cluses to Tignes, with an epic lone attack, and moved to just over two minutes behind the overall race leader and defending Tour champion, Tadej Pogacar.
“Just to be here in the first place is the first dream,” O’Connor said. “To achieve this today is testimony to everyone who’s believed in me over the years. It’s what you dream of and it’s so fulfilling and there’s so much joy. I’m loving every single moment.”
Much more here:
Mark Cavendish has only just finished today’s stage, about 32 minutes behind O’Connor. He’s likely to be more involved on Tuesday, when the race resumes after a rest day with a very different stage between Albertville and Valence. 190km with no particularly daunting climbs:
Mark Cavendish will still be in green, though he didn’t add to his point collection today. The leaders of this race:
- Mark Cavendish (168pts)
- Michael Matthews (130)
- Sonny Colbrelli (121)
- Jasper Philipsen (102)
- Julian Alaphilippe (99)
- Nacer Bouhanni (99)
Nairo Quintana will wear the polka dot jersey on Tuesday, when the race resumes after a rest day. He might well wear it tomorrow, to be fair, but we won’t be able to watch him do it. The king of the mountain standings are as follows:
- Nairo Quintana (50pts)
- Michael Woods (42)
- Wout Poels (39)
- Ben O’Connor (24)
- Sergio Higuita (22)
- Guillaume Martin (14)
- Matej Mohoric (11)
- Dylan Teuns (10)
- Tadej Pogacar (10)
- Lucas Hamilton (9)
A really interesting stage, with an unexpected conclusion. Ben O’Connor won a stage in last year’s Giro d’Italia, finishing 20th overall but giving strong hints of his potential. He seems to have taken another big step forward this year, and today’s ride on a really challenging stage technically, phyiscally and tactically, was just exceptional.
Geraint Thomas sounds much perkier at the end of today’s stage than he did at the start of it.
I felt 10 times better today. Still stinging, don’t get me wrong. That was a hard start. I managed to just hang in there. I was more up for it as well, after such a poor performance yesterday. An extra coffee on the bus and a bit more attitude, I guess. Then I just felt OK once we got on the long climbs. We tried to up the pace at the end, to try to put the other [GC] guys on the back foot a bit.
The top 10 of the GC now looks like this:
- Tadej Pogacar
- Ben O’Connor +2min 1sec
- Rigoberto Uran +5min 18sec
- Jonas Vingegaard +5min 32sec
- Richard Carapaz +5min 33sec
- Enric Mas +5min 47sec
- Wilco Kelderman +5min 58sec
- Alexey Lutsenko +6min 12sec
- Guillaume Martin +7min 2sec
- David Gaudu 7min 22sec
Ben O'Connor: 'I wasn't meant to be in the break
Ben O’Connor has a chat:
It was always the dream. Just to be here is the first dream. This is testament to everyone who’s put faith in me over the years, my fiancee, my parents, my best mates back in Australia. It’s been a wild ride, and it’s mindblowing. I mean, it’s what you dream of. It’s so much joy. I’ve managed to control myself now. I’m just loving every single moment. I’m so happy, Citroen have had so much faith in me, and it’s clear how much happiness has brought the team, so it’s special.
I actually wasn’t meant to be in the break. I was just waiting, I didn’t really know what to do, if I should play cool. I heard it was a great opportunity, to gain time on the GC, and I knew I could always win at the end. I was blowing pretty hard, but it was a mad stage, conditions were atrocious. I was concerned that Tadej was going to explode from behind and chase me down, but I knew I could win the stage. i had faith the whole time, and it was about making sure I didn’t panic. As soon as you think, ‘I’m going to win a stage on the Tour de France’, all sorts of things happen to your mind.
Other AG2R Citroën riders punch the air as they cross the line, enjoying their teammate’s triumph today.
Pogacar crosses the line a few seconds over six minutes behind O’Connor, who in the end was nowhere near taking the yellow jersey. O’Connor will however end the day in second, and with a handy gap on third.
Behind him, is is as if Pogacar saw Carapaz attack, shrugged his shoulders and said to himself, ‘Well, if I have to...’ He has left the rest of that GC group long behind, and is going to extend his lead over all of them.
Mattia Cattaneo is going to finish second, though he’s still on the road.
Ben O'Connor wins stage nine!
O’Connor completes a phenomenal ride with victory at Tignes!
Updated
1.5km to go: Richard Carapaz attacks, but Pogacar shadows him, and then overtakes him!
2km to go: O’Connor is about to crest the top of the Montee de Tignes, and is 2km from stage victory.
2.8km to go: O’Connor’s lead over Pojacar is now 7min 35sec. He started the day 8min 13sec behind.
3km to go: Tignes is in sight for Ben O’Connor. The only question now is, exactly how much glory is he riding towards?
4km to go: O’Connor’s lead over his closest rival for the stage is 4min 45sec.
5km to go: Geraint Thomas is at the front of the yellow jersey group, and they are very slowly, but sufficiently, eating into O’Connor’s lead over them, which is now at 7min 50sec. I find the idea of O’Connor ending the day in yellow romantic and entertaining, and thus: boooo!
6km to go: INEOS Grenadiers are ruining O’Connor’s fairytale fun, moving to the front of the yellow jersey group and increasing the pace, working to keep Richard Carapaz in the podium conversation.
7km to go: O’Connor is now more than eight minutes ahead of the yellow jersey group, having the day of his life, and is setting Tadej Pogacar a real poser.
Updated
8km to go: Quintana and Higuita have briefly reunited, before Quintana, who last we saw was looking broken and being left behind by the leaders, has given Higuita a taste of his own medicine. O’Connor leads by 3min 40sec.
10km to go: What a ride this is from Ben O’Connor. He is now over three minutes ahead of Sergio Higuita, seems to have the stage all but sewn up with, admittedly, the hardest part of this long final climb to come, and once again has the yellow jersey in his sights.
13km to go: Guillaume Martin is forced to stop for a bike change! He was helping the yellow jersey group up the final climb, and that might help Ben O’Connor reestablish a lead over Pojacar.
15km to go: Gerda Creelman asks for a full list of riders who have abandoned the Tour this year. Here goes:
Movistar: Marc Soler
AG2R Citroen: Nans Peters
Lotto Soudal: Caleb Ewan
Jumbo-Visma: Primoz Roglic, Robert Gesink
Alpecin-Fenix: Mathieu van der Poel, Tim Merlier
Bahrain-Victorious: Jack Haig
B&B Hotels: Cyril Lemoine
Groupama-FDJ: Ignatas Konovalovas
Team DSM: Jasha Sütterlin
16km to go: O’Connor is 30sec ahead of Higuita, and a further minute ahead of Quintana.
17km to go: O’Connor attacks! He has stood up and accelerated away from Higuita, and the Colombian has no answe!
19km to go: Pogacar has increased the pace, and gobbled up enough ground to suggest that he will stop Ben O’Connor from stealing the yellow jersey off him.
22km to go: Quintana is dropped by the leaders! I’m not sure what happened there, but the cameras cut to him almost stationary. He speeds up a bit, but in front of him Higuita and O’Connor are disappearing from view.
24km to go: The final climb in full. The first 11km of the climb, we’re told, up to the brief flattish section, is “relatively moderate”; the rest is not:
⛰ Here is the 3D route of the final climb : la Montée de Tignes.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 4, 2021
⛰ Voici le profil 3D de l'ascension finale : la Montée de Tignes.#TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/SBNdDvOnh6
26km to go: Jonas Vingegaard and Vincenzo Nibali have both had punctures to deal with. They have both now dealt with them.
29km to go: Now they’ve got to the bottom O’Connor, who is not a noted descender, is catching up with the Colombians again. The gap is down to 15 seconds.
32km to go: The two Colombians are 38 seconds ahead of O’Connor at the front of the field, and approaching the start of the long climb towards the finish.
33km to go: Crash! One of the UAE-Team Emirates riders has just gone off the side of the road at the exit of one of the hairpin turns. It looks like Brandon McNulty, the good news being that he picked a good spot to do it, and his fall seemed well cushioned by long grass.
34km to go: Higuita seems to have deliberately slowed to let Quintana catch him.
40km to go: The descent is not taking long. Higuita has moved clear at the front, going at or above 60kmh.
50km to go: Quintana is first over the Cormet. The downhill that follows is fast, technical and generally very mean.
53km to go: The peak of the category two Cormet de Roselend is about a kilometre away. After that the remaining 50km are approximately evenly split between long downhill and long uphill.
54km to go: Quintana, whose race number was rained off his back some time ago, takes off his shirt entirely, and re-dresses in waterproof jacket. Lots of riders are now waring all-black waterproofs, which makes identifying them something of a challenge.
57km to go: Ben O’Connor has caught the front two. They are just over eight minutes ahead of the yellow jersey group, which makes O’Connor the de facto race leader. Here’s a snipped of live footage. I am probably fairly risk-averse by nature, but the very idea of a high-speed descent in this is completely terrifying.
🇨🇴 Colombian connection at the front with @NairoQuinCo and @HiguitSergio!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 4, 2021
🇨🇴 Duo colombien à l'avant avec Nairo Quintana et Sergio Higuita!#TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/XR96gclPBx
61km to go: Sergio Higuita has caught up with Quintana, and the pair of them are now setting off on an all-Colombian assault on the stage.
63.5km to go: Michael Woods crossed the line third, and he too overtakes Wout Poels, who has the polka dot jersey today. The points allocation in full:
- Quintana (20 points)
- Higuita (15)
- Woods (12)
- O’Connor (10)
- Hamilton (8)
- Poels (6)
- Perez (4)
- Martin (2)
64km to go: Quintana is first up the Col du Pré, banking 20 king of the mountains points and vaulting into on-the-road polka-dot position.
65km to go: Quintana is leaving it all on the road today. 1.5km from the top of of the climb, he’s heading off on his own.
Updated
66km to go: It looks very much like Wout van Aert is being dropped. He started today in second place, but this was never going to be his day. Ben O’Connor, though, is racing towards a podium position - he’s in the breakaway group, and if the stage ended now he would be in second place, just 45 seconds behind Pogacar.
67.5km to go: Those abandonments have been confirmed now. Peters and Merlier thus miss out on weather like this:
67km to go: Merlier’s abandonment means that Alpecin-Fenix have lost two people, and their best sprinters, since the end of yesterday’s stage.
68km to go: I’m reading, with no official confirmation, that both Nans Peters and Tim Merlier have abandoned.
70km to go: The leaders are 6km from the peak of the Col du Pré. It is so grey and grimy that it’s almost dark.
72km to go: Poels has caught back up with the leaders, and that group of six has a two-minute lead over a second group of 22, which includes Julian Alaphilippe, Jakob Fuglsang and Warren Barguil. The main peloton, including the yellow jersey, is five minutes further back.
Updated
80km to go: Poels has dropped back now, climbing points secure, and Quintana has been caught by the group he left behind on the way up the Col des Saisies, composed of Ben O’Connor, Michael Woods and Sergio Higuita, plus Lucas Hamilton.
Updated
87km to go: Poels officially won the race up Col des Saisies and thus pockets 10 more polka-dot points. Quintana gets eight, Woods six, and Higuita four, with O’Connor and Lucas Hamilton mopping up the rest. Poels thus leads the classification by four points from Woods, with Quintana third.
90km to go: There now follows 15km of downhill that ends at Beaufort, famous for its cheese of the same name.
95km to go: Photo finish at the Col des Saisies! Quintana catches Poel on the line at the top of the climb up the Col des Saisies. It looks like Poel was first to the line by an inch, but that’s very much tbc.
96km to go: The chasing four are Ben O’Connor, Michael Woods, Sergio Higuita and Nairo Quintana, and it looks like Quintana has set off at the front of them hoping to bridge the gap.
98km to go: Poels continues at the front of his own, with four riders chasing him, perhaps 30 seconds behind. Here’s a picture of Poels from a little earlier:
101km to go: Wout Poels and his polka dot jersey have moved clear at the front, and he’s looking quite comfortable doing it.
104km to go: Back uphill they go, on their way up the category one Col des Saisies. Saisies means, worryingly, seizures. “Pogacer is ruthlessly impressive isn’t he?” writes Paul Griffin. “Sweeps opposition aside imperiously, like Don Bradman, Gary Kasparov, Ed Moses, or Southgate’s England. I suspect the man to beat him in a grand tour may still be a school: a new era has begun.” Southgate’s England, very good.
106km to go: The six-man breakaway has failed to break away, though Colbrelli remains on his own, a few seconds clear.
112km to go: Colbrelli wins maximum points at the intermediate sprint, beating Michael Matthews to the line.
Updated
113km to go: There’s a six-man breakaway group at the front, including Julian Alaphilippe and Sonny Colbrelli, who’s having a jolly good go today.
114km to go: Enric Mas is down! He’s soon back on a new bike, grimacing in pain but with nothing broken. The roads must be perilously slippery, with rain falling constantly today.
119km to go: A couple of big names have been dropped already, including Richie Porte and Chris Froome.
120km to go: Sonny Colbrelli has set off at the front, with several green jersey candidates in the group he’s trying to shake off.
122km to go: They’re about 10km away from the day’s intermediate sprint, at Praz-sur-Arly. The first half of that distance is uphill, and the peloton has already been strung out and split.
Updated
124km to go: The first climb has been completed, and Pierre Latour was first over the top, ahead of Sweeny. Nairo Quintana and Michael Woods were the other two riders to snaffle points.
125km to go: Very much no longer flat, they’re on their way up the Côte de Domancy. Ballerini and Sweeny remain at the head of the race, but they won’t be for long.
130km to go: Through Sallanches they go, nearing the end of the flat section that starts the stage. Davide Ballerini and Harry Sweeny have broken away at the front, and have a lead of around 45sec.
Updated
134km to go: They also just spoke to Geraint Thomas, another of the stage three crash victims, who didn’t sound like he was having much fun, and hinted that this might be his last stage.
136km to go: ITV speak to one of the Jumbo-Visma people about Primoz Roglic’s departure. “It’s hard to swallow,” he said. “He was literally banged out of the Tour de France, it’s hard to accept. The Tour lost a champion today, he was I think the only rider who could challenge Pojacar, but it’s cycling, it’s sport, highs and lows, and now we move on.”
141km to go: They’ve just gone through Magland, which sounds like a chain of newsagents but is in fact a commune in Haute-Savoie.
The stage is now officially under way. It didn’t exactly start in Cluses, but on a wet country road entirely lacking watchmaking museums.
Updated
ITV had a little interview with Van der Poel in which he said it was Alpecin-Fenix who decided he should leave the Tour today, that he would have continued for a bit (though it was never his plan to finish this year), but that he had “nothing to gain” from sticking around.
Mathieu van der Poel pulls out of the Tour
Mathieu van der Poel, who enjoyed six days in the yellow jersey on his first Tour, will not start today’s stage. Instead he’ll have a short breather before heading to the Olympics. Here’s some of what he said:
It’s in my best interest to quit the race. I’m going to take some time to recover from this week. I have some other goals. Due to corona it wasn’t possible for me to do the whole tour and then my at my top game in Tokyo. I think we’ve had an amazing week, and I’ll be back next year to go to Paris.”
🚨 🇳🇱 @mathieuvdpoel will not be at the départ of the 9th stage!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 4, 2021
🚨🇳🇱 @mathieuvdpoel ne prendra pas le départ de la 9ème étape !#TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/liTTiDWKSC
The stage is due to get under way in about half an hour, at 1.10pm local time, aka 12.10pm BST. The town of Cluses, where it begins, is known for its watchmaking, and home to the musée de l’horlogerie et du décolletage. Don’t get excited, décolletage may be defined in English as “the low-cut neckline of a woman’s garment” or “a woman’s cleavage as revealed by a low neckline on a dress or top”, but Cluses’ museum is of clockmaking and screwcutting. It is, apparently, very good.
Hello world!
So it’s Tadej Pogacar, then. Yesterday the Slovenian pedal-pusher destroyed his rivals to emerge with a lead of nearly two minutes at the top of the general classification, and nearly five minutes clear of anyone generally considered a contender for overall victory. Today he’s back in the saddle for a stage that starts with 17km of almost complete flatness before hitting the riders with four categorised climbs, finishing with the really rather mean 21km-long ascent to Tignes, plus this year’s first HC climb, the 13.1km, 7.4% Col du Pré. It should be another dramatic day, though it may not be as decisive as yesterday’s. What is for certain, however, is that tomorrow’s rest day will be extremely welcome.
Some news this morning: Primoz Roglic has abandoned the tour, having failed to recover from injuries sustained in a crash on a chaotic stage three.
🇫🇷 #TDF2021
— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) July 4, 2021
Primoz Roglic won’t start in today’s stage of @LeTour. He suffers too much from his injuries.
Get well soon @rogla 🍀
Here’s what Will Fotheringham had to say about today’s stage in his pre-race guide:
Stage nine, Sunday 4 July, Cluses – Tignes 144.9km
Unusually, this year the Tour bypasses the highest and most iconic Alpine passes, and today’s gloriously scenic Cormet de Roselend is about the best we will see of the massif. The long descents after the Col des Saisies and the Roselend will give weaker climbers a chance to get back to the front group before the final sort-out. The winner will probably come from an early move – the likes of Warren Barguil or Nairo Quintana are obvious candidates – but the draggy Tignes finish climb will suit a rider like Alaphilippe or Geraint Thomas rather than a lighter pure climber.
