Stage 9

The road

At the start

Into the Tarentaise, before the rest

Tadej Pogačar rode away from the race on the Col de Romme and leads it by 1:48 from Wout van Aert, the climbers scattered four and five minutes back. Today packs 4,600 metres of climbing into 145 kilometres: Hinault's Côte de Domancy, the Aravis, the savage Col du Pré, the Cormet de Roselend, then twenty kilometres up to Tignes, washed out by a storm in 2019.

How it was won

1. 164 km to go

   The break splinters

   Four passes into a grim, sodden Alpine day the escape starts to come apart on the Col du Pré, with O'Connor, Higuita and Quintana emerging as the strongest.

2. 251 km to go

   O'Connor in virtual yellow

   The leaders crest the Cormet de Roselend 8:15 clear of the peloton — enough to put Ben O'Connor into the virtual maillot jaune by a handful of seconds. Quintana beats Higuita to the summit points.

3. 330 km to go

   Dropped on the descent

   Higuita is far and away the quickest down the nineteen kilometres of wet hairpins and O'Connor slips off the back of the trio, trailing the two Colombians by forty seconds at the bottom.

4. 417 km to go

   O'Connor strikes for the stage

   With yellow now out of reach on the long climb to Tignes, the Australian changes his ambition entirely. Seventeen kilometres from the line he attacks Higuita and puts fifty seconds into him inside a single kilometre — a Tour debutant riding away up a twenty-one-kilometre climb and never being seen again.

5. 52 km to go

   Alone through the resort

   O'Connor crosses the flat reprieve through Tignes 2:20 up on Higuita and crests the last of the climbing with the stage already won.

6. 6At the line

   O'Connor wins, Pogačar goes again

   Behind, Carapaz attacks at the four-kilometre banner and only draws Pogačar out, who jumps away alone once more and splinters the GC group. O'Connor moves to second overall; nobody else moves closer.

The result