Tignes (France) (AFP)

Tignes crowned on Sunday an Australian from a French team, Ben O'Connor, solo winner of the 9th stage of a Tour de France now under the law of Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.

In the Savoyard resort, at an altitude of 2107 meters, Pogacar has confirmed if necessary its current superiority in the mountains.

He nibbled about thirty extra seconds on his direct rivals, the day after his seizure of power in Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie).

The only change for the outgoing winner before the Tour observes its first day of rest: the name of its runner-up.

The Belgian Wout van Aert logically fell back on a ground not very convenient and left the second place to O'Connor, now 2 min 01 sec behind the Slovenian.

"O'Connor was impressive, he did a big number, hat," said Pogacar politely, who evaded during the short post-stage press conference a question about the suspicion spread on social media following his stunt. strength.

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"My physical condition is super good, a little less good than yesterday (Saturday) but yesterday, I lived one of the best days of my career. Today, it was necessary to put more in survival mode", a replied the young Slovenian (22 years) of the UAE team.

- Dark day for Groupama-FDJ -

In the final, Pogacar countered a start by Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz less than 4 kilometers from the finish and left his opponents unanswered.

Even more David Gaudu who gave up nearly a minute to his rivals for a place of honor in a dark day for his Groupama-FDJ team (Arnaud Démare out of time).

"It wouldn't have been the worst thing for me to lose the jersey, but I like it, I want to keep it as long as possible, that's why I gave a small attack at the end" , explained the Slovenian, whose position at the top of the standings was for a time threatened by O'Connor who was however more than eight minutes late at the start of Cluses (Haute-Savoie).

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Cold and rain hardened the race in this 144.9-kilometer stage that left without two major players, the Slovenian Primoz Roglic and the Dutch Mathieu van der Poel, who are already looking to the Tokyo Olympics.

With the difference that if Roglic is diminished by the after-effects of his fall, van der Poel mainly intends to digest the fatigue of a thunderous first week, for his debut in the Tour.

Several withdrawals (Peters, Merlier, De Buyst) were then recorded during the stage.

On arrival, the latecomers, mainly Arnaud Démare and Bryan Coquard, who could not do as well as other sprint specialists (Bouhanni, Greipel, Cavendish), did not benefit from the leniency of the jury after being arrived out of time.

- O'Connor rookie of choice -

In contrast, the Italian champion Sonny Colbrelli caused a sensation in this mountain stage that the sprinter completed in ... third place.

"It was cold, I felt good, it was a day of grace", exulted the sprinter of the Bahrain team, a formation which has not ceased to surprise for several weeks both at the Giro (2nd place for Caruso) and at the Dauphiné (three stage successes).

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To win the stage, O'Connor left behind in the long final climb, more than 20 kilometers on a moderate slope most of the time (5.6% on average), his last companions, the Colombians Nairo Quintana, new carrier of the polka dot jersey, and Sergio Higuita.

The 25-year-old Australian climber endured the harsh weather conditions just as he did at the 2020 Giro, last October, when he won the Madonna di Campiglio stage.

He delighted Vincent Lavenu's AG2R Citroën team, who had had a dark day at the start of the Tour with seven out of eight riders caught in crashes.

© 2021 AFP