Primoz Roglic seized the race leader’s yellow jersey after another hectic day of Tour de France racing in the mountains as Marc Hirschi delivered an impressive 90-kilometer solo effort across four Pyrenean climbs.
Roglic displayed his strong climbing credentials in the final ascent Sunday to dethrone overnight leader Adam Yates. Jumbo-Visma leader has been flawless so far and able to respond to every attack with ease over the first weekend in high mountains. It’s a performance that earned him the first yellow jersey of his career after nine days of racing.
”Everyone is dreaming about wearing it, I’m super happy,” said Roglic. ”But the mission is to try to win the race in Paris, we need to maintain our focus. It’s just the beginning.”
Hirschi, a former under-23 road race world champion, got away away from the peloton in the first major ascent of the 153-kilometer trek then resisted the favorites’ chase until he was caught with only 2 kilometers left. He launched a sprint to the finish line but was not fast enough as Tadej Pogacar prevailed to win stage 9 ahead of fellow Slovenian Roglic. Hirschi finished third in the town of Laruns.
”It’s really crazy, after that hard day to win the stage,” said Pogacar. ”Actually I wanted to gain as much time as I could in the general classification, but in the last 100 meters I thought of the 10 seconds awarded to the winner. I focused on the sprint, I just went full gas.”
A Tour debutant, Pogacar is lagging 44 seconds behind Roglic in seventh place.
Ahead of Monday’s first rest day, Roglic leads Bernal by 21 seconds thanks to the bonus time he amassed at the top of the mountain and on the finish line. Frenchman Guillaume Martin is third, 28 seconds off the pace. Bernal finished the stage in the same time as Pogacar.
”I know that I have lost time to Roglic but I should be patient,” Bernal said. ”He is an intelligent rider, I think that he has learned a lot from the last big tours that he did. The plan is just to wait until the right moment.”
Tour de France 2020 – stage 9 results (Pau – Laruns):
| 1 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | 3:55:17 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | ,, |
| 3 | Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 4 | Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) | ,, |
| 5 | Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren) | ,, |
| 6 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | +11” |
| 7 | Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 8 | Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 9 | Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 10 | Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling) | ,, |
| 11 | Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) | ,, |
| 12 | Damiano Caruso (Bahrain McLaren) | +54” |
| 13 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | ,, |
| 14 | Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) | ,, |
| 15 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 16 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | ,, |
| 17 | Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) | ,, |
| 18 | Enric Mas (Movistar) | ,, |
| 19 | Ion Izaguirre (Astana) | +01’14” |
| 20 | Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) | +03’12” |
Tour de France 2020 – general classification after stage 9:
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | 38:40:01 |
| 2 | Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) | +21” |
| 3 | Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) | +28” |
| 4 | Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) | +30” |
| 5 | Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) | +32” |
| 6 | Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling) | ,, |
| 7 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | +44” |
| 8 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +01’02” |
| 9 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +01’15” |
| 10 | Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren) | +01’42” |
| 11 | Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) | +01’53” |
| 12 | Enric Mas (Movistar) | +02’02” |
| 13 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | +02’31” |
| 14 | Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) | +03’22” |
| 15 | Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) | +03’42” |
| 16 | Damiano Caruso (Bahrain McLaren) | ,, |
| 17 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +03’43” |
| 18 | Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | +05’45” |
| 19 | Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) | +06’08” |
| 20 | Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) | +12’13” |
