The young rider from UAE Team Emirates takes his first victory at La Grande Boucle.

21-year-old Tadej Pogačar added his first stage win at the Tour de France to his palmares, adding it to the trio of successes obtained in the Vuelta a Espana in 2019.

The Slovenian from the Emirati squad won the 9th stage of the Tour de France, 153 kilometres from Pau to Lauruns, outsprinting a group containing the new yellow jersey Primoz Roglic, Marc Hirschi, Egan Bernal and Mikel Landa, becoming the youngest Tour stage winner in the 21st century.

Hirschi had led the race for 80km before being caught almost in sight of the finish line by the chasing quartet. On the ascent of the Col de Marie Blanque, the group of favourites was put under pressure by two attacks from Pogačar, with only Roglic, Bernal and Landa able to follow the UAE Team Emirates leader. 

Pogačar dominated the stage atop his Colnago V3RS equipped with Campagnolo Super Record EPS 12 Speed and Campagnolo Bora WTO 45 aero wheels.  

Pogačar said: “It is incredible to have won at the end of such a hectic day. Firstly I thank the team for the excellent work done throughout the stage. I am very happy, in the final my goal was to recover as many seconds as possible in the general classification, also aiming for bonuses, but the concentration was then turned to the sprint: I don’t remember exactly how I won the sprint, I just thought about pushing as hard as possible.

 

“I arrive on the first rest day with a stage win, which is added to the one obtained in the first stage by my teammate Kristoff. I am happy with what we have done so far in this Tour, with only one off-day on the 7th stage.”