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Tadej Pogacar (l.) And Primoz Roglic (r.): "I don't know what happened in the sprint"
Photo: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
The sprint:
Marc Hirschi drove at the end of the leading group and was the first to lose his nerve.
The Swiss sprinted early on the last few meters.
Tadej Pogacar saw that, got on his competitor's rear wheel, picked up the pace and sprinted out of the slipstream to victory.
Completely perplexed, the Slovenian clapped his hands on his helmet.
Youngster:
"It's really crazy," said Pogacar: "I don't know what happened in the sprint. I just gave full throttle."
The driver of the UAE team had already attacked the day before and caught up a few seconds in the overall standings.
On Sunday Pogacar also got bonus seconds, but was especially happy about the day's success.
At 21 years and 351 days, Pogacar is now the youngest stage winner since Lance Armstrong in 1993 - a comparison that probably no professional is happy about these days.
Especially since Armstrong last stated that he started doping when he was around 21.
(And no, Armstrong's stage win back then has really not yet been revoked, unlike his yellow jerseys.)
The score:
Primoz Roglic, right next to Pogacar, stretched out his hand right behind the finish line and congratulated the youngster.
Congratulations would also have been appropriate the other way around.
Because Roglic took over the yellow jersey of the overall leader on the ninth stage of the Tour de France.
On the 153 kilometers from Pau to Laruns, the captain of Jumbo-Visma distanced Adam Yates, who had been in the lead up to now.
Roglic is now in the lead and 21 seconds ahead of last year's winner Egan Bernal, while Frenchman Guillaume Martin is third.
Read the stage report here.
The hunted:
On Saturday it looked as if Roglic was only playing with his competitors.
So he let Pogacar go, although he could have kept up.
At the same time he parried attacks from several competitors.
Now, before the first day of rest, Roglic wears yellow for the first time.
His team Jumbo-Visma has dominated the tour so far with three stage wins and a lot of leadership work in the mountains.
"I think the race won't change for us," said Roglic.
The team seems so strong that it can defend the Maillot Jaune in the Alps.
Then last year's winner Bernal has to attack.
But there is still a long way to go.
He is solo:
Marc Hirschi drove over 90 kilometers alone at the top.
He fought his way up four mountains in the Pyrenees alone and showed rapid descents.
When the 22-year-old held on to his centrally mounted bike computer with both hands, he almost looked a bit like he was in a time trial.
He drove out four minutes apart.
But two kilometers from the finish he was eaten up by the group of leading riders, and Hirschi was only third.
He had already been an outlier in Nice, but only finished second in the sprint against Julian Alaphilippe.
"I hope for another chance," said Hirschi now.
Fight against doping:
According to "Cyclingnews", the Anti-Doping Commission for Cycling (CADF) announced that the number of doping tests before the cycling races last July should have returned to normal.
In June, the CADF had announced that the tests had temporarily decreased by 90 percent due to the corona crisis.
Between January and August, compared to 2019, only half of the doping tests were carried out.
The French professional Nans Peters wrote in a critical blog entry that fraudsters were invited to doping.
Stars like Thibaut Pinot had also complained that they hadn't been tested for months.
Memory of Portal:
Before the start of the 9th stage, Team Ineos remembered its late sports director Nicolas Portal.
The Frenchman, who had lived temporarily in Pau, died of a heart attack in March at the age of 40.
Portal had led Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas to victories in the Tour de France.
Fear of the rest day:
Monday is the first break in the Tour de France this year - and with it PCR tests for the coronavirus.
The first team members were tested on Sunday, and the drivers are supposed to follow on Monday, which makes around 600 checks in total.
The results should be available no later than Tuesday before the start of the stage.
"I don't think a racing driver or an employee was infected with Corona. The bubble in which we are supposed to move works by and large. You have no contact with strangers," said the Bora-hansgrohe team boss, Ralph Think the German Press Agency.
Two positive tests within a team could lead to the team being excluded.
The mood will also be correspondingly tense on the rest day.
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