The ninth stage of the Tour de France was won by Bob Jungels after a breakaway. The twenty-nine-year-old cyclist from Luxembourg achieved the achievement of a lifetime at the top of Chatel les Portes du Soleil.
Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar kept the yellow jersey without any problems after the first alpine test. The winner of the previous two years finished in fifth place and is 39 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard at the head of the standings.
Jungels attacked about 60 kilometers from the finish halfway up the penultimate climb of the Col de la Croix. After that, he lost more than two minutes of lead, but in the end he managed to take his first victory at the Tour.
He claimed his second Grand Tours win after a stage triumph at the Giru d’Italia in 2017. The AG2R rider also has success in the famous Liège-Bastogne-Liège one-day classic in 2018.
“After years of suffering, especially last year, I came here for a stage victory,” Jungels gushed.
“This is my style of racing and winning. It reminds me of my Liège-Bastogne-Liège victory. My form is getting better day by day. I had to attack early today because it was impossible to pass all the favorites on the last climb,” he recounted.
Jungels, who won a stage success for Luxembourg at the Tour after 11 years, won with a lead of 22 seconds ahead of Jonathan Castroviej, with another Spaniard Carlos Verona in third, another four seconds back.
Monday is a free day for the Tour, after which the peloton faces challenging stages in the Alps. On Wednesday, the cyclists will head to the Col du Galibier, the day after they will climb the famous climb again and finish on Alpe d’Huez.
However, the coronavirus is a bigger threat to riders than the dreaded climbs. Last month, only half of the competitors completed the general race at the Tour Around Switzerland due to the infection, in the last two days covid-19 started to spread even on the “Old Lady”.
“It’s a big threat. Our entire team tested two days ago. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for today’s results. We’re taking it very seriously, we’re taking all possible precautions. I hope most of the peloton will be fine,” said interim leader Pogačar.
Cyklistický závod Tour de France – 9. etapa (Aigle – Chatel les Portes du Soleil, 193 km):
1. Jungels (Luc./AG2R-Citroën) 4:46:39, 2. Castroviejo (Sp./Ineos Grenadiers) -22, 3. Verona (Sp./Movistar) -26, 4. Pinot (Fr./Groupama -FDJ) -40, 5. Pogačar (Slovenia/SAE Team Emirates), 6. Vingegaard (Dan./Jumbo-Visma) both -49, 7. G. Thomas, 8. A. Yates (both Brit./Ineos Grenadiers), 9. Mas (Sp./Movistar), 10. Quintana (Col./Arkéa-Samsic) all -52.
Running order: 1. Pogačar 33:43:44, 2. Vingegaard -39, 3. G. Thomas -1:17, 4. A. Yates -1:25, 5. Gaudu (Fr./Groupama-FDJ) -1:3 , 6. Bardet (Fr./DSM) -1:39, 7. Pidcock (Brit./Ineos Grenadiers) -1:46, 8. Mas -1:50, 9. Powless (USA/EF Education-EasyPost) – 1:55, 10. Fifth -2:1
