Tour de France Stage 9 Preview: Back to the Climbs
Stage 9 - Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat to Puy de Dôme (182.4km) - Sunday, July 9
After 35 years, one of the most famous climbs in Tour de France history makes its return at the end of Stage 9: the Puy de Dôme. An extinct volcano that rises above the Massif Central, the climb was last visited by the Tour in 1988, when Denmark’s Johnny Weltz was first to the summit.
The 182.4km stage begins in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat and heads due east toward Clermont Ferrand–and the peloton’s long-awaited date with the Hors Categorie (“Beyond Category”) Puy de Dôme, which rises above the city. The intermediate sprint comes early–in Lac de Vassivière–and from there the stage’s jagged profile really begins to bite, with three categorized climbs setting the stage for the finale.
A breakaway will escape early (or at the latest after the intermediate sprint). They’ll more than likely be caught before the final ascent, but this stage is so important that for at least some of the French teams will send a rider or two off the front in search of some valuable Sunday afternoon TV-time.
And the break will get caught: the Tour’s top-2 riders, Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), are too tenacious to let such a historic stage go to someone else, so they’ll likely have their teams sit on the front, keeping any escapees close enough so as to get caught in the run-in to Clermont Ferrand, out of which the Puy de Dôme starts just a few kilometers later.
The 13.3km-climb begins rather steadily, with an average gradient hovering around 7% for the first 9km. But the pitch steepens significantly once the riders hit a parking lot that’s the last stop for tourists wishing to take the railway to the summit. At this point the pitches go above 11%, as the riders head onto an access road that’s been closed to them since the railway was constructed. These final 4km average close to 12% and the road narrows considerably as the riders wind their way around and up the treeless summit.
Tour legends like Italy’s Fausto Coppi, Spain’s Federico Bahamontes and Luis Ocaña, and the Netherlands’ Joop Zoetemelk have all won here. Frenchman Raymond Poulidor and Jacques Anquetil waged an epic side-by-side battle to win the Tour here in 1964. And sadly, Belgium’s Eddy Merckx was punched in the stomach here in 1975, injuring his kidney and likely ending his career. And after 35 years of waiting, we can’t wait to see the next rider to add his name to the Puy de Dôme’s record book.
Riders to watch
Given the battle they’ve been waging against one another since Stage 1, it’s hard to see anyone other than Vingegaard or Pogačar winning this stage. The profile isn’t hard enough to allow a breakaway to get much of a gap, and these two champions are too tenacious to let anyone else take the stage for themselves. So while it’s not inconceivable, based on how they’ve raced so far, we can’t see anyone else winning this stage, with the victor gaining an important mental edge heading into the Tour’s second week.
When to Watch
There will be some interesting tactical moments early in the stage as Jumbo-Visma and UAE Emirates attempt to set-up their leaders for the final climb, possibly by sending a teammate or two into the day’s main breakaway. But the action will go down on the Puy de Dôme, which the riders should start climbing at around 11:45 a.m. EDT with the stage expected to finish around 40 minutes later.
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