Good afternoon all. The debutant racer from Slovenia, Tadej Pogacar, ruled the stage nine of the Tour de France. Meanwhile, his compatriot Primoz Roglic won the yellow shirt from Adam Yates.
Roglic was not willing to take the risk of the final climb of stage nine, but it was enough for him to knock Yates out of the top spot, Reuters reported. Pogacar was able to build faster than Roglic on the last climb at Col de Marie Blanque, and beat Marc Hirschi, to move up to seventh in the standings. He finished stage nine with a time of 3 hours 55 minutes 17 seconds, a time similar to that set by Roglic and Hirschi.
Defending champion Egan Bernal finished fourth with a record time similar to the top three, as well as climbing to second place in the general standings. Yates stopped the stage in 15th place, and fell into eighth in the general standings. As the Tour de France headed for a rest day, Roglic sat at the top, but Bernal also got what he wanted.
Roglic was awarded a five-second bonus at the top 18 kilometers from the finish line, and pursuers were able to catch up to former Under-23 world champion Hirschi 2.5 kilometers before finishing. Pogacar went on to become the fastest rider to assist the finish line, when he regained his lost 1:20 time on Friday.