Tour de France 2022 - Bob Jungels lands special Stage 9 win after 63km solo break, Tadej Pogacar keeps yellow

Updated 10/07/2022 at 19:05 GMT

A fine solo break from Bob Jungels saw him become the first rider from Luxembourg to win a stage at the Tour de France since Andy Schleck in 2011. At one stage, it looked as though Thibaut Pinot might soar back as the French fans roared him on, but the Groupama–FDJ faded and eventually finished fourth. Tadej Pogacar looked typically lively in the closing stages to assert himself on his GC rivals.

'Very, very special!' - Memorable win for Jungels after solo charge

Bob Jungels (AG2R Citroen) landed a sensational 63km solo break to win Stage 9 at the Tour de France in the first Alpine finish. The Luxembourger fended off the final climb advances of Thibaut Pinot (Groupama FDJ), Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers) and Carlos Verona (Movistar) to bring home his first-ever Tour stage win, and a first victory on the road since 2019.

A fervent finale saw the spectators will Pinot towards Jungels, just a day after the home favourite was wiped out by a soigneur’s bag. With the peloton drawing near, the Frenchman left his fellow breakaway riders behind halfway up the Pas de Morgins, and will now surely be wondering if he should have gone earlier.

Because despite visibly beginning to struggle, Jungels refused to crack completely. After the road flattened out, with the shallower incline favouring him over the true climbers, the result did not look in doubt. It was Luxembourg’s first stage win at the Tour since Andy Schleck on the Galibier in 2011.

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Jungels earned the win with his legs, but also with his head. The fourth longest stage of this year’s Tour looked, on paper, likely to go to a breakaway.

As such there were a large number of riders eager to make the early escape out of the Swiss start town of Aigle, home of the UCI. Multiple moves went out, only to be reeled in, with the sprinters desperate for the stage to settle down, and the peloton to bunch up, so they could fall back into it.

The stage was over an hour old before that happened. A group of 14 strong riders were able to make it away not far from the top of the first categorised climb.

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Just as things seemed to be stabilising, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Total Energies) lit the burners in service to team-mate Pierre Latour, who did not want to miss the move of the day. He carried with him the green jersey of Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), as well as Brandon McNulty (UAE TeamEmirates), Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R-Citroën), Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Ion Izagirre (Cofidis).

Van Aert drove the smaller group across to the larger one and was rewarded by being allowed to roll across the intermediate sprint and take maximum points.

With Rigoberto Uran (EF Education EasyPost) out front, and 3’24" down in the GC, the peloton were never going to allow the lead to grow towards double digits. UAE Team Emirates were in for a day of obligations, and would make heavy work of controlling the break before reeling most of it in.

The second climb of the day, the Col de Mosses, saw the stage’s first battle, with Latour taking it to Simon Geschke (Cofidis), the rider with the best chance of replacing Magnus Cort Nielsen as the King of the Mountains. The German crossed the summit in second place, earning himself four points, enough to bring him within a score of the jersey.

The top of the next, the Cat. 1 Col de la Croix, was both where he would win it, and where Jungels set off in search of the stage win.

63km from the finish Jungels decided he couldn’t hang around, allowed Geschke to lead him over the top before ditching him on the dive back down towards Aigle.

The AG2R man pushed the envelope on the descent, cornering with the utmost skill, hitting speeds of over 80kph. On the valley road towards the final climb, he turned to his time trialling abilities to extend his advantage over the chasers to two minutes.

That was how much he had at the foot of the 15.4km Pas de Morgins. He would need almost every second of it.

Because when Pinot hit out himself, although it looked too little too late, it was far from certain that Jungels would be able to hold on.

The Frenchman clawed back much of Jungels’ advantage but he had, indeed, left it too late. Although Pinot was able to bring Jungels back within range, it was not until the road levelled out, where Jungels had the advantage, that he was able to do so. The supreme effort he had put in also cost him more than Jungels had needed to stay away, and the two Spaniards, Castroviejo and Verona, fellow graduates of the break, were gaining ground on him.

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The pair were even able to overtake him on the final, uncategorised climb. A mighty effort from Pinot, but one which left him with only fourth place to show for it.

The day belonged to Jungels, whose gamble paid off and whose stunning 63km solo ride showed, after several seasons of struggle, that he is finally back to his best.

"I saw the shape was getting better day by day," he said afterwards. "I knew I had to try from far because probably on the last climb it was impossible to ride away from the favourites. I gave it a try.”

“I knew that if I could make it over the top [of the Pas de Morgins], on the flat and on the downhill I could make up some time. I just kept my rhythm and I knew I wouldn’t explode if I just kept it there. The last 2km were endless.”

With the Cat. 1 climbs less imposing than their classification suggested, there was little movement in the GC battle as Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) eased through another day in yellow – cheekily taking a couple of seconds on all his rivals except Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) on the line.

Monday is the first proper rest day of the Tour de France. The race resumes on Tuesday in Morzine.

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