Le Tour back on the Puy de Dôme
Puy de Dôme (13.3km, 7.7%), the mythical climb which witnessed a memorable victory of Federico Bahamontes at the 1959 edition and an epic duel between Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor in front of hundreds of thousands of fans fifteen years later, returned at the Tour de France after 35 long years as the first ever climb in the Massif Central ranked as Hors Catégorie.
Just like in 1988, the last time it was visited by the race, the day belonged to the breakaway, Michael Woods (Israel-PremierTech) taking the victory from the large group at the front after surging away in the last kilometer of the race. For the sprinters it was another brutal day which they had to overcome to remain in the game, and that included Fabio Jakobsen, who put once again an admirable effort together with his Soudal Quick-Step teammates, making it inside the time limit with plenty of time to spare.
The Tour de France takes a break now for a rest day in Clermont-Ferrand, the hometown of Rémi Cavagna, before resuming on Tuesday with a medium mountain stage to Issoire.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
