Yellow jersey contender Tadej Pogachar suffered another blow on Sunday on stage 9 of the Tour de France, the third mountainous stage to Puy de Dome. The Slovenian took eight seconds back from race leader Jonas Vingegaard.

Despite the time loss, and despite Vingegaard's advantage being reduced to 17 seconds heading into Monday's rest day, his Jumbovisma team said after the stage, "We are still on track."

Vingegaard and his team still hold the maillot jaune.

"I think today was a satisfying day," Sepp Kuss said after the stage. I'm sorry about the eight-second loss, but the breakaway was uphill and there were no time bonuses left, so the eight-second loss was unavoidable. But I tried to set a good pace on the climb, so maybe I wasn't explosive enough."

"He's pulling away a little bit, but we're still leading," added the American superdomestique.

"Looking back at last year, we were already 45 seconds ahead at this point or something like that. Overall, I'm really happy with where we are. Jonas' feeling is very good. We knew it was going to be a really big battle."

Arthur van Dongen, Jumbo Visma's sporting director, had similar words for the throngs of journalists waiting for the Dutch team's bus on the way up the Auvergne.

Vingegaard was the only elite GC group able to handle Pogachar's painful acceleration 1.5 km from the top of the steep climb. However, as was the case in Autre on stage 6, they were unable to hold the pace and eventually finished 8 seconds behind.

Van Dongen reminded journalists that his riders still had the upper hand in the yellow jersey battle and in the yellow jersey itself.

"We are still in yellow. We are still on the track. The team is strong and good. I know a lot can happen, but I'm not worried. We still have two weeks to go until Paris and we have the time trial coming up."

"There are still plenty of opportunities, but it doesn't surprise me that Pogachar is one of the leading contenders."

With Pogachar dominating, Van Dongen was asked if the advantage lies with Vingegaard, now that the two-time Tour winner seems to be back to full strength, with a 1:04 gap on the Marie Blanc pass on stage 6, and is he now the form man in the mountains? The question was posed.

"If you look at the climbs of the last two stages, he might have a slight advantage over Jonas at the moment. But it's not just about the last two days. It's about wearing yellow in Paris."

"We still have yellow. But if we gain time in the last two mountain finishes, that could be a small advantage. But Jonas has a really strong team and we can ride with confidence.

The first rest day in Clermont-Ferrand is preceded by three passing stages before the next mountain test (a summit finish in Grand Colombier on Friday), and the battle for the 2023 Tour de France is poised to be as delicate as it was in the Basque Country during the Grand Depart.