Tadej Pogacar has delivered a show of strength on the legendary Puy de Dome climb at the Tour de France to eat into Jonas Vingegaard's lead - but it was a painful day for Australian contender Jai Hindley.
After Canadian Michael Woods had soloed brilliantly to victory on the summit of the celebrated volcanic crater in the Massif Central on Sunday, Pogacar produced a late surge from an elite group of pursuers to take eight seconds out of leader and defending champion Vingegaard.
The Dane had to grit his teeth to limit the losses as he tried in vain to pursue his great Slovenian rival, but he still ended 17 seconds ahead in the general classification.
The feeling that the race is already a two-rider affair, though, gained credence as third-place Hindley lost over a minute to both his rivals and is now 2 minutes 40 seconds behind Vingegaard and 2:23 adrift of Pogacar.
Hindley was dropped, and finished 19th on the stage, more than nine-and-a-half minutes behind Woods, 1:14 behind 13th placed Pogacar and 1:06 adrift of 14th placed Vingegaard.
The only good news for the BORA-hansgrohe's Australian 2022 Giro d'Italia winner Hindley, who had worn the leader's yellow jersey earlier in the week, is that he still remains 1:42 ahead of his nearest pursuer for a podium place, Spain's fourth-placed Carlos Rodriguez, who clawed back just 14 seconds on him.
Hindley, though, reckoned he was not unhappy with his day's effort.
“It was a tough day and a really hard final climb, super steep and unforgiving. The temperature also played its role and I suffered a lot on the Puy de Dome. But I didn’t have the best legs today and felt I needed to ride my own race," he said.
"I didn’t hang on to the guys as long as I could, but let them go and paced myself to the finish. That worked out well and I am quite happy with the outcome of the day.”
Israel-Premier Tech rider Woods caught American Matteo Jorgenson, who'd made an attack off the front of the day's breakaway, just 500 metres from the celebrated summit which hadn't been raced on for 35 years at the Tour.
Frenchman Pierre Latour was second with Matej Mohoric third and Jorgenson fourth.
"I'm still having a pinch-myself moment," said the 36-year-old Woods.
"I'm not getting any younger. I've always talked about winning a stage at the Tour de France and I've finally achieved it."
A great stage to win too. The start town, Saint Leonard de Noblat, was where former France great Raymond Poulidor was buried in 2019, with his grandson Mathieu van der Poel, one of the best riders in the peloton, calling it an emotional day.
Jacques Anquetil and Poulidor had famously gone shoulder to shoulder near the top of the Puy de Dome in 1964 in what has long been considered perhaps the greatest duel in Tour annals.
