Puy de Dôme belongs to Michael Woods after a thrilling fightback on stage 9 of the Tour de France as Pogacar takes time back on Vingegaard

Michael Woods has taken a truly spectacular solo victory atop the Puy de Dôme on stage 9 of the 2023 Tour de France, after overcoming Matteo Jorgenson in a thrilling fightback in the final few kilometres.

The first summit finish of the 2023 Tour de France and at the historic Puy de Dôme, returning to the race for the first time in 35 years. With a rest day coming tomorrow, fireworks were expected from the likes of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard once again.

The battle for the breakaway perhaps wasn't quite as fierce as many would have expected. 14 riders going clear including notable riders such as Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Matej Mohorič (Bahrain - Victorious), Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team), Michael Woods (Israel - Premier Tech) and best placed in the general classification, all be it over 26 minutes down, Clément Berthet (AG2R Citroën Team).

With no team really interested in chasing the break, the time difference quickly grew up towards the 10 minute mark.

The King of the Mountains leader Powless was able to take maximum points unopposed on the first two climbs of the day, extending his lead. The American rider also managed to take the maximum points on the climb of the day.

Following the climb, the attacks began to come from the breakaway as each rider began to look out for their own personal interests.

The first of these attacks to really gain a gap came from Jorgenson, with him leading solo by 30 seconds at the 40km to go marker.

Despite a chasing quarter riding incredibly hard to try and catch him, Jorgenson's advantage remained around half a minute.

As they reached the infamous final climb, Jorgenson's advantage was 1:01 over his nearest chasers with the peloton a whopping 16:04 further down.

Jorgenson was simply a man on a mission, actually increasing his lead as he reached the flatter section of the climb.

The final 4 kilometres were without any supporters on the roadside due to the tight nature of the final kick-up to the line. As Jorgenson reached that part of the climb, he was 1:18 ahead with Matej Mohoric leading the chase.

Meanwhile, Jumbo-Visma had come to the front of a much-reduced bunch setting a very hard pace, with the timegap dropping to 12:30.

Michael Woods had joined and overtaken Mohoric, chasing down Jorgenson, needing to turn around a gap of around 30 seconds in the final kilometre.

He barely needed even half the final kilometre to do so! Catching the Movistar rider, attacking him almost immediately and riding to a brilliant victory.

In a very select group led by Sepp Kuss were Vingegaard, Pogacar, Simon Yates and INEOS Grenadiers duo, Tom Pidcock and Carlos Rodriguez.

With 1.5km to go, Tadej Pogacar made his move. Vingegaard immediately on his back wheel but everyone else was distanced.

As Pogacar maintained his acceleration, even Vingegaard began to struggle and soon a few bike lengths had opened up.

That gap was extending with every Pogacar peddle stroke. With one final grimace Pogacar crossed the line around 8 seconds ahead of his arch-rival.

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