PUY DE DOME, France — Canadian Michael Woods delivered an impressive solo effort to claim the biggest success of his career at the top of a legendary Tour de France climb on Sunday as two-time champion Tadej Pogacar further reduced the gap with overall leader Jonas Vingegaard.
Woods, who rides for the Israel-Premier Tech team, has no ambition in the general classification and was part of an early breakaway that the main contenders allowed to form early in the ninth stage. He managed to catch American Matteo Jorgenson just 500 meters from the summit after his 24-year-old rival jumped away from the leading group with less than 50 kilometres left.
The 36-year-old Woods then dropped Jorgenson at ease and reached the summit of the Puy de Dome, a famed volcanic crater in the Massif Central region of south-central France that last hosted a stage 35 years ago.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and talked about doing, but is never something I’ve achieved and I finally did it,” Woods said.
Fellow Canadian Hugo Houle, Woods’ Israel-Premier Tech teammate, won Stage 16 of last year’s Tour. Woods finished third that day.
Houle’s victory was Canada’s first stage win in the historic race since Steve Bauer captured the opening stage of the Tour in 1988.
Bauer is now sporting director at Israel-Premier Tech.
“Mike showed us again that he is one of the best climbers in the world. … Due to my personal relationship with Mike and the other Canadians on our team, I couldn’t be more proud,” said Israel Premier-Tech team owner Sylvan Adams, a Canadian-Israeli entrepreneur.
Woods and Houle are joined by fellow Canadian Guillaume Boivin on Israel Premier-Tech’s Tour de France squad.
Riding well behind the breakaway, Pogacar and Vingegaard were again in a class of their own in the group of contenders. After another great collective effort from Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma teammates in the final ramp that destroyed the field, Pogacar launched his attack with 1.5 kilometres left and accelerated again on the steepest gradients.
Vingegaard lost ground but did not panic and managed to limit the deficit to eight seconds to retain the yellow jersey.
Ahead of Monday’s first rest day, Vingegaard has a 17-second lead over Pogacar in the general classification, with Jai Hindley in third place at 2 minutes, 40 seconds off the pace.
Frenchman Pierre Latour finished the 182.5-kilometre (113-mile) stage in second place, with Matej Mohoric completing the podium. Jorgenson ended up fourth.
— With files from The Canadian Press.
