Woods claims first Tour de France stage victory as Pogacar closes gap on leader

Canadian Michael Woods charged up the Puy de Dome to beat Matteo Jorgenson to a breakaway victory on stage nine of the Tour de France as Tadej Pogacar clawed back a few more seconds on race leader Jonas Vingegaard.

Woods took almost two minutes out of Jorgenson on the steep gradients of the dormant volcano, making its first appearance in the Tour for 35 years, rounding the American with 450 metres left to take his first career Tour de France stage at the age of 36.

The two were part of a 14-strong group who had gone clear early on the 182.5km stage from Saint Leonard de Noblat, hitting the final climb with an advantage of more than 15 minutes on the peloton.

By the time the main contenders crossed the line, some nine minutes after Woods, Pogacar had put in an attack inside the last 1,500 metres to claw back eight seconds on Vingegaard, whose advantage in yellow is down to 17 seconds going into Monday’s rest day.

British duo Simon Yates and Tom Pidcock were the next riders home, with Yates recovering a little over the losses caused by a late crash on Saturday, and Pidcock putting in an encouraging ride that lifted him to seventh overall as he tests himself in the general classification.

Jorgenson had raced clear of the rest of the breakaway with a little under 50km to go as a series of attacks started. Woods could not follow the move and ended up in a third group on the road, but bided his time.

Jorgenson started the steepest section of the climb, with just over four kilometres with gradients averaging 12 per cent, with 80 seconds over three riders behind and another 25 or so over Woods, but that gradually whittled down.

Tadej Pogacar, right, of UAE Team Emirates and overall leader Jonas Vingegaard of team Jumbo-Visma in