For this return to France after the foray into Switzerland, Jungels turned the table around for the AG2R Citroën team, struggling since the start due to the difficulties encountered by its Australian leader Ben O'Connor.

In an undecided final, he resisted the return of Thibaut Pinot, who faltered in the very last kilometers.

On the eve of the rest day, Pogacar only sprinted in the last hectometres to try to nibble away a few seconds from his rivals.

His runner-up, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, followed him and the duettists preceded their opponents by three seconds for the final classification.

Luxembourg's Bob Jungels during the 9th stage of the Tour de France, which he won after a long breakaway, on July 10, 2022 in Châtel Thomas SAMSON AFP

A wave of anti-covid tests

Like the rest of the peloton, they must all undergo a covid-19 screening test in the evening.

The coronavirus caused Sunday morning, before the start of the stage in Aigle (Switzerland), the departure of Guillaume Martin, the third rider in two days to have to leave the Tour because of the virus.

The results, with possible other abandonments at the entrance to the Alps if the positive runner is contagious, will be announced on Tuesday morning, before the start given in Morzine.

In the meantime, Jungels has given some comfort to his team, which has been battered since leaving Denmark.

The day after his ninth place in Lausanne, his first top 10 in the Tour, he achieved a masterstroke: 64 kilometers of breakaway in a stage which ended with the ascent of a first category pass, the Pas de Morgins, extended by a short descent and four kilometers of a final climb often on a false flat.

Frenchman Thibaud Pinot during the 9th stage of the Tour de France between Aigle in Switzerland and Châtel in France, July 10, 2022 Thomas SAMSON AFP

"It's my way of racing," said the Luxembourger, who also won solo Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2018, before experiencing difficult seasons.

For his first season under the colors of Vincent Lavenu's team, he had to have surgery on both iliac arteries last year and waited until recent weeks to recover his level.

"A Big Engine"

"The finish corresponded to his athletic qualities, Bob is a big engine who can take gear," described his sports director Julien Jurdie.

In fact, the Luxembourger repelled the assault of Thibaut Pinot launched after him less than 9 kilometers from the summit of the Pas de Morgins and returned to around twenty seconds at the top.

Frenchman Thibaud Pinot, Combativeness Prize during the 9th stage of the Tour de France, July 10, 2022 in Châtel Anne-Christine POUJOULAT AFP

"The return of Pinot scared us in the final", admitted Vincent Lavenu.

"We could see that it was better in the steepest parts".

But, as a time trial specialist, Jungels made up time in the final to finally beat the Spaniards Jonathan Castroviejo and Carlos Verona, other members of the breakaway of the day, by 22 and 26 seconds.

Pinot, who was able to reassure himself after his two falls on Saturday, finally fell to fourth place in the stage.

After nine days of racing, the Pas de Morgins proved difficult for several candidates in the general classification.

The Russian Aleksandr Vlasov bent and left an extra twenty seconds.

But the main loser of the day is one of the strengths of the Ineos team: the Colombian Daniel Felipe Martinez dropped more than a quarter of an hour and unscrewed in the classification.

© 2022 AFP