And with that, I’ll sign off, at the end of a pretty compelling day’s racing in the Alps and a heartwarming triumph for Bob Jungels. Stay on the site for Jeremy Whittle’s stage report. Thanks for your company, comments and quips. Bye.
A shout also to Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates who finished strongly to claim top-10 places. And here is that top 10 in full:
1. Bob Jungels (LUX) AG2R - Citroën Team 4:46:39 2. Jonathan Castroviejo (ESP) INEOS Grenadiers +22 3. Carlos Verona (ESP) Movistar Team +26 4. Thibaut Pinot (FRA) Groupama - FDJ +40 5. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates +49 6. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Jumbo - Visma “ 7. Geraint Thomas (GBR) INEOS Grenadiers +52 8. Adam Yates (GBR) INEOS Grenadiers “ 9. Enric Mas (ESP) Movistar Team “ 10. Nairo Quintana (COL)
And the GC standings look like this:
Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates 33:43:44 2. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Jumbo - Visma +39 3. Geraint Thomas (GBR) INEOS Grenadiers +1:17 4. Adam Yates (GBR) INEOS Grenadiers +1:25 5. David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama - FDJ +1:38 6. Romain Bardet (FRA) Team DSM +1:39 7. Tom Pidcock (GBR) INEOS Grenadiers +1:46 8. Enric Mas (ESP) Movistar Team +1:50 9. Nairo Quintana (COL) Team Arkéa - Samsic +2:13 10. Primo* Roglic (SLO) Jumbo - Visma +2:52
Jungels speaks: “It’s hard to say what I feel right now – I’m just overwhelmed to be honest. This is huge, it’s what I came here for and means a lot for the team after a couple of years struggling, and a very tough last year with surgery and everything to take the victory. It was my style of racing, my shape has been getting better day by day. I knew I had to try from far out because probably on the last climb it wasn’t possible to move away from the favourites.
“I knew that if I held on [on the climbs] I could make up some time again on the downhill and on the flat, but that last two kilometres were endeles. I took all the risks I could and it happened and Im just very grateful and thanks to my team and everyone who believed in me in recent years.”
Pogacar retains the yellow jersey
What a ride that was from Jungels – he went early and alone, but that masterful downhill riding proved decisive to win an engrossing stage. And what a lift for his team, AC2R, given the injury travails of Ben O’Connor. Pinot looks crestfallen at the finish, but he left everything out there.
And Pogacar retains his yellow jersey – an untroubled smooth run for him.
Bob Jungels wins stage nine!
Jungels kicks on and wins a Tour de France stage for the first time, and it’s a battle for second as Pinot is hunted down and Castroviejo crosses the line in second ahead of Verona. Pinot, for all his valiant efforts, comes in fourth. And here comes Pogacar in fifth.
Updated
1km to go. Pinot looks knackered now as Jungels maintains that half-a-minute or so advantage, with the pursuing pair of Castroviejo and Verona 51 seconds back. I don’t think Pinot has it in him now.
3km to go. Jungels stretches his lead again to around 30sec on Pinot. Verona nudges in front of Castroviejo. This would be a first Luxembourg Tour stage win since 2011.
Updated
5km to go. Castroviejo’s travelling really well in third but Verona’s still with him. As Jungels maintains his advantage around the 20sec mark, the road narrowing and the crowd increasing. The yellow jersey group’s less than two minutes behind the leader too now.
Updated
8km to go. Jungels fastens his top, prepares to descend then powers down with an advantage of 21 seconds. Castroviejo attacks behind Pinot, who’s 20 seconds ahead of him and two behind the leader Jungels. A four-way finish?
11km to go. Gaps closing all the shop – Pinot closing on Jungels and gets him within sight, but the pursuing group inching closer to Pinot, with Verona and Castroviejo in outside contention. Jungels’ advantage is below half a minute – can he repeat his fine earlier descents to extend that lead again? Pinot’s straining every sinew but has he overreached himself?
14km to go. Uran’s dropped back from that pursuing group after all that speculation about his intentions, with Castroviejo and Verona now leading that pursuit of Pinot. Meanwhile Aleksandr Vlasov and Tom Pidcock are now struggling behind the yellow jersey peloton group, which is around 2:15 off the lead.
Jungels’ lead on Pinot dips below a minute to around 40 seconds with the summit around 4km away. Pinot has a real chance here.
Updated
17km to go. The breakaway group started by Pinot also includes Castroviejo and Geschke, but they’ve got work to do to reel in Jungels. The Luxembourg rider sees his lead fall back under two minutes to around 1:30 as this slow-burn, arduous climb continues. We may yet get a grandstand finish here, with Pinot in increasingly hot pursuit. This has been an excellent ride from the Frenchman.
19km to go: A blow for Ineos as Dani Martinez, 10th overall, is dropped from the peloton, as Jungels’ lead is cut slightly to around 2:19 ahead of the pursuing group led by Van Aert, who’s got into a mini-breakaway with Pinot and Uran among others. Another display of positive intent from a resurgent Pinot.
22km to go. You’d think Jungels will be reeled in, but as they start climbing he stretches his lead way beyond two minutes – it’s currently around 2:25. Given how brilliantly he took the previous descent this could stand him in very good stead to get the job done as they approach the finish. And he’s not won a major race outside his national championship for three years. Back in the peloton, the UAE guys still look composed, but Ineos’s Geraint Thomas s looking comfortable among them too. Roglic looking happier today too than in recent days. The peloton is around 3:15 back at present, only a minute behind the green-jersey pursuers’ group.
26km to go. We might have expected the pursuing group, in which Van Aert among others sits, to have cut the gap on Jungels by this point as they prepare to climb again, but the rider from Luxembourg is still out front by around 1:40 now.
32km to go. Jungels has stretched his lead to around a minute and a half going into the final climb of the day. The peloton’s still in reach of the pursuing group too, at three minutes back, with Pogacar and his UAE teammates at the head of it.
40km to go. Jungels is absolutely going for it now, the AG2R Citreon man taking the corners with aplomb to move around a minute ahead of his pursuers as the descent flattens out a little and the Swiss-French border approaches. The chasing group is still pretty formidable in size though (13 of ‘em), and we’ve still got another climb to come at the Pas de Morgins.
James Cavell helpfully responds to Creigh Gordon’s ‘accordion’ query:
Accordion effect is more of a problem around corners. The first riders in the line go through the corner without braking, but further down the line, the riders brake. If you are near the back you might almost come to a standstill and then have to accelerate back up to 50 km/h to stay on the wheel in front.
Lots of corners = lots of pain.
Also, if the peloton is strung out in a long file in any sort of crosswind, only the guys at the front (who rotate in a diagonal grouping) are getting any protection from the wind. All the riders in the line are having to hold that speed with no draft, grovelling in the gutter. Usually the peloton breaks up.
If anyone wants a crash course in how miserable both these things can be, I suggest racing elite level in The Netherlands.
Updated
46km to go. Jungels is again forging ahead alone at around 75-80kmph, some 45 or so seconds ahead of the pursuing pack as they pick up speed on the meandering downhill road. The peloton is around 2:20 behind. Meanwhile Ben O’Connor, whose prospects looked injury-wrecked a while back, has managed to stay in the race – that’s impressive competitive tenacity given the pain he appeared to be in.
Updated
53km to go. Latour is dropped from the breakaway group as they begin their descent and the pace picks up. The gap from lead group to peloton has stabilised a tad at around 2:20. And here’s some KOM result details: 1. Simon Geschke, 10 pts; 2. Bob Jungels, 8 pts; 3. Thibaut Pinot, 6 pts; 4. Hugo Houle, 4 pts; 5. Pierre Latour, 2 pts; 6. Carlos Verona, 1 pt
“Question”, asks Creigh Gordon. “On seeing the photo of the peloton string out. In my experience, when riding in a group like that, the riders in the back are subject to an ‘accordion’ effect as the line expands and contracts that forces them to slow down and speed up, and is very tiring. Is that a factor here, or if not, why not?” I have basically no experience of riding in a group like that, so am going to throw this one open to the floor.
Geschke takes KOM lead
60km to go. Van Aert is looking strong again at the front of the pursuing group, as Geschke attacks and overhauls Jungels at the summit to take top KOM points and the next ownership of the polkadot jersey.
Updated
64km to go. Nils Politt has been dropped from the lead group, which now comprises a mere 20 riders currently as Latour makes a move. Jungels responds and moves clear. Further back Sagan, Matthews and Pedersen are dropped from the peloton, which has picked up the pace on this climb. The gap is now around two minutes five seconds – are the Emirates team applying the pressure again already?
Updated
“We now go live to the Jumbo–Visma and UAE Team Emirates directeurs sportif team cars,” honks Paul Griffin:
67km to go. Uran and Van Aert have moved towards the front as they start climbing again, as the gap from front group to a peloton headed by those UAE riders dips below three minutes again to around 2:45. Right at the back, the Australian Ben O’Connor is looking in great discomfort. It looks as if it’ll be a surprise if he finishes today, his hip injury causing him grief.
71km to go: And the official site has just slapped up the provisional KOM standings, with Magnus Cort taking the lead. And they line up thusly:
1. Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost), 11; 2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), 10; 3. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), 8; 4. Simon Geschke (Cofidis), 7; 5. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), 6; 6. Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies), 5; 7. Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), 5;
KOM points for Pierre Latour
77km to go. Latour overhauls the Canadian Hugo Houle at the summit to take the five points. Simon Geshke also adds two points. And down they come with Col de la Croix the next climb. Meanwhile the gap from the breakaway, which is still 21-strong, to the peloton has crept back up to 3:24.
Updated
87km to go. The lead group remains stable and together though its gap with the pack has been cut by around 30 seconds over the past few kilometres, standing now at around three minutes. Nils Politt and his Bora teammate Patrick Konrad lead it at present. In that peloton, UAE Emirates’s Marc Hirsch has struggled on the climb and is no longer leading the pack. His teammate Mikkel Bjerg replaces him. The next climb, the Col de la Croix, is likely to be more definitive.
96km to go. A little split emerges at the front as they start to climb again at the Col des Mosses, and it feels painful and arduous just watching, with Dombrowksi and McNulty prominent. Pinot stays with them. Uran sits back for now but he is now the virtual leader of the race. The gap to the peloton is now three and a half minutes.
“Really good to see Pinot in the break,” tweets MaliciousA (it says here). “He’s hardly had the best run of luck in recent years, but when he is on, he’s thrilling to watch. Heroics aside, he’ll need a stomp on the keep the break clear, as this is a great chance for him to nab a stage win.”
Updated
100km to go. Among that leading group is Thibaut Pinot, who’s fighting back well after his crashes and mishaps of yesterday. Jonathan Castroviejo is also worth looking out for, and Uran’s presence is focusing minds. The lead group are now three minutes ten seconds ahead. Pogacar and his UAE teammates continue to lead the peloton
Updated
106km to go. The rotating breakaway group of 21 now has a lead approaching three minutes but no major movements just now, powder perhaps being kept dry for the looming climb at the Col des Mosses. And they may be high up but it’s still a clear hot day in the Swiss Alps.
Updated
115km to go. The lead group of 21 now has a comfortable gap of around two and a half minutes, as we rise higher in the lush and idyllic Swiss mountains. A hiccup for Ineos and Van Baert has to replace a tyre. Pierre Latour, part of the leading group, is another stalled by a puncture.
Updated
126km to go. Conditions are getting more blustery as the climb continues, with Uran laying down the gauntlet as the highest placed GC contender among the leading group. Overall race leader Pogacar remains in cruise control in the peloton, which is headed by three UAE riders, at 2:20 behind the front group at this stage
Updated
Van Aert takes intermediate sprint
134km to go. Van Aert effortlessly takes the 20 points for the intermediate sprint, strengthening his green-jersey credentials. The sizeable front group now has a lead of more than two minutes.
Here’s the full result of the intermediate sprint
1. Wout van Aert, 20 pts
2. Nils Politt, 17 pts
3. Luis Leon Sanchez, 15 pts
4. Hugo Houle, 13 pts
5. Bob Jungels, 11 pts
6. Simon Geschke, 10 pts
7. Benoît Cosnefroy, 9 pts
8. Guy Niv, 8 pts
9. Pierre Latour, 7 pts
10. Patrick Konrad, 6 pts
11. Kobe Goossens, 5 pts
12. Ion Izagirre, 4 pts
13. Joe Dombrowski, 3 pts
14. Thibaut Pinot, 2 pts
15. Rigoberto Uran, 1 pt
Updated
140km to go. The front group of about 10 now has a 20-second gap on its chasing group, headed by Van Aert, and the peleton’s around a minute behind the front. Michael Woods is getting patched up from his team car at the back of the pack on those nasty looking back gashes.
And here’s that lead group in full – Patrick Konrad, Warren Barguil, Rigoberto Uran, Jonathan Castroviejo, Bob Jungels, Thibaut Pinot, Franck Bonnamour, Carlos Verona, Simon Geschke, Luisle Sanchez, Kobe Goossens, Dombrowski, Stuyven, Guy Niv and Hugo Houle
“You have to say that the strategy from ineos of trying not to win a stage is a bold one and also subtle at the same time,” quips Paulo Biriani. “A schrodinger’s TDF strategy, if you will.” We shall see – long way to go yet.
Updated
146km to go. We have a bit of movement at the front with a group including Sanchez, Goossens, Pinot, Berguil, Kämna and Uran breaking clear. A gap of around 35 seconds is established from the peloton, which is collectively taking it easy at this point. There’s 10km to go to the sprint, and the tireless Van Aert is readying himself near the front of the chasing group
Updated
148km to go. Still no substantive break as they pass Charlie Chaplin world now, which prompts a diverting riff in the Eurosport commentary box about his life, his flight to Switzerland from McCarthyism etc – one of the joys of the race, this sort of stuff. Off the back of the peloton, Mathieu van der Poel and Peter Sagan are struggling. Astana’s riders labouring too.
155km to go. We now have a little group out front and some positive intent from Ineos – Jonathan Castroviejo goes with Dylan Van Baarle and Io Izagirre of Cofidis at the head of the course, as we pass through Chexbres, Castroviejo picking up a King of the Mountains point in the process.
Updated
159km to go. We’re nearing the first climb, the Cote de Bellevue, and still awaiting a serious break - there’s a sizeable group just ahead of the peloton but nothing decisive.
And here’s where they’re headed
🤩 Today's scenery
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 10, 2022
🤩 Les paysages du jour#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/UkkyUOjVsI
169km to go. News of some more withdrawals – Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) is out with Covid, while Kasper Asgreen (Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl), has a knee injury and Ruben Guerreiro (EF Eduaction-Easypost) is ill. And Tony Gallapin has gone down in a crash of at least three bikes towards the back of the peloton. Michael Woods also appears to have come away from it with a nasty gash on his back. We await a serious breakaway ahead of the climbs; if we don’t get one this could get tasty, with Pederson having been reeled in.
Updated
179km to go. They’re under way, and passing Lake Geneva. No major moves as yet, but Mads Pedersen has hit the front. Florian Senechal, on his birthday no less, is prominent too
Updated
Preamble
Morning everyone. So talk that this year’s Tour was heading for another stroll for Tadej Pogacar stalled somewhat yesterday when the defending champion and race leader lost a key teammate, Vegard Stake Laengen, to Covid and Wout van Aert continued his impressive form to snatch the stage win in Lausanne yesterday. The Belgian has shown this year that he’s a rider for one-day races and individual stages but don’t bet against him remaining a significant figure for the duration of this year’s Tour. Ineos are well placed too, with four riders in the top 10 in the overall standings.
Today we’re heading for the Alps, with two first-category climbs on the 193km stage from Aigle to Châtel and Col de la Croix the highest of them at 1,778m. Breakaways haven’t been that successful this year but today could be a race where early breakers are rewarded. It’s a hot one in Aigle, the temperature in the late 20s this morning, and a demanding day beckons.
Here’s the GC standings:
1 T Pogacar (28hr 56min 16sec),
2 J Vingegaard (+39sec)
3 G Thomas (+1:14)
4 A Yates (+1:22)
5 D Gaudu (+1:35)
6 R Bardet (+1:36)
7 T Pidcock (+1:39)
8 N Powless (+1:41)
9 E Mas (1:47)
10 D Martinez (+1:59)
