TEAM Bahrain Victorious’ Matej Mohoric put on an impressive display from the breakaway to finish third on stage 9 at the Tour de France, increasing the team’s podium finishes to three at this year’s edition.
The Slovenian rider found himself in the early day’s breakaway that included 14 riders, and with no real threats to the GC, the peloton sat up, giving the break a gap of over 14 minutes, making it a certainty the winner would come from the break.
Matteo Jorgensen made the first decisive move in the break with 50km to go. Meanwhile, Mohoric stayed with a smaller group keeping the gap to around 1:20 from the Movistar Team rider.
As they approached the Puy de Dome, Mohoric pursued Jorgensen, reducing the deficit significantly, but Canadian Michael Woods of Israel-Premier Tech (IPT), who came from the second chasing group, clawed back Mohoric and Jorgensen to take the stage win.
The Slovenian was able to catch Jorgensen but finished third behind Frenchman Pierre Latour (Total Energies), who also closed from the chasing group.
Mohoric said: “Today was not actually a stage that I planned to go for my own result, but I found myself in the breakaway from the start. First, I hesitated to wait and see if any of our climbers would make it across, but the barrage was made behind and we had a gap. Then I gave it my best and tried to go for the win, but when Jorgensen attacked, I hesitated too much.
“Then it was always going to be hard to come back, and in the last climb, Woods and Latour even made it across to us and had something left to go and win the stage. So Michael proved he was the strongest today and third place was the best possible result.”
Meanwhile, the Tour is expected to turn into an all-time classic as UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogacar narrowed the gap with defending champion and overall leader, Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma.
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