Tignes (France) (AFP)

Australian Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën) won the 9th stage of the Tour de France, the second in the Alps, on Sunday in Tignes.

Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE), wearing the yellow jersey, distanced his direct rivals in the final and nibbled about thirty extra seconds on the eve of the rest day.

Pogacar changed dolphin, since O'Connor reached second place in the standings, 2:01 am behind the Slovenian.

Cold and rain hardened the race in this stage, which started out once again with a bang, without two major players, the Slovenian Primoz Roglic and the Dutch Mathieu van der Poel, who are already looking to the Tokyo Olympics.

Colombian Nairo Quintana, in search of the best climber's polka-dot jersey, took the lead in the descent of the Col des Saisies, more than 90 kilometers from the finish.

He was joined before the Col du Pré, the third of the five climbs of the day, by other members of the breakaway (Higuita, O'Connor, Hamilton, Poels then Woods).

Quintana kept Higuita and O'Connor with him in Cormet de Roselend before suffering a failure at the foot of the very long climb to Tignes (21 km at 5.6%).

In turn, Higuita stuck 18 kilometers from the finish and left O'Connor alone in the lead.

- Pogacar once again superior -

The thinned peloton around Pogacar, whose delay had peaked at 9 minutes until giving O'Connor a completely virtual yellow jersey, began to get closer in this very fast ascent before losing weight again.

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On the line, O'Connor was more than four minutes ahead of Italian Mattia Cattaneo, on the counterattack in the final.

The Italian champion Sonny Colbrelli, however cataloged road sprinter, took third place ahead of Frenchman Guillaume Martin.

In the last 4 kilometers, Pogacar countered a start from Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz and crossed the line in sixth position, in the wake of the riders.

Frenchman David Gaudu let go and gave up nearly a minute to his rivals for the general classification behind Pogacar, once again superior in the mountains.

O'Connor, 25, joined the elite in 2017. Winner of Madonna di Campiglio's mountain stage last year on the Giro, he was recruited in the offseason by the French team of Vincent Lavenu for whom he stood out at the recent Dauphiné (8th).

The Australian, who is taking part in the Tour de France for the first time, was in 14th place at 8:13 minutes from Pogacar.

Roglic, second in the 2020 Tour, and van der Poel, yellow jersey for six days from the 2nd to the 8th stage, left the Tour before the start from Cluses.

© 2021 AFP