Roglic takes Tour de France lead as Pogacar grabs stage 9

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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):

1Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)

3:55:17

2Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)

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3Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb)

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4Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers)

,,

5Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren)

,,

6Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)

+11”

7Guillaume Martin (Cofidis)

,,

8Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale)

,,

9Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo)

,,

10Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling)

,,

11Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic)

,,

12Damiano Caruso (Bahrain McLaren)

+54”

13Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)

,,

14Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers)

,,

15Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)

,,

16Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana)

,,

17Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma)

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18Enric Mas (Movistar)

,,

19Ion Izaguirre (Astana)

+01’14”

20Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling)

+03’12”

 

Tour de France 2020 – general classification after stage 9:

1Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)

38:40:01

2Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers)

+21”

3Guillaume Martin (Cofidis)

+28”

4Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale)

+30”

5Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic)

+32”

6Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling)

,,

7Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)

+44”

8Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)

+01’02”

9Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana)

+01’15”

10Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren)

+01’42”

11Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo)

+01’53”

12Enric Mas (Movistar)

+02’02”

13Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)

+02’31”

14Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma)

+03’22”

15Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers)

+03’42”

16Damiano Caruso (Bahrain McLaren)

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17Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)

+03’43”

18Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe)

+05’45”

19Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling)

+06’08”

20Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott)

+12’13”

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