The dormant volcano was being used on the Tour for the first time in 35 years for an incredibly tough final 13.3-kilometre climb which averaged at a 7.7 per cent gradient and finished at around 11 per cent for the last 4km, a narrow stretch without spectators.

Heat which reached around 35 degrees Celsius added to the challenge for the riders.

The United States' Matteo Jorgenson of Movistar Team appeared to be heading for a famous solo victory after making a move from the breakaway of 14 riders with around 47km remaining of the 182.5km stage which began in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat.

He had a lead of around one minute at the start of the final climb and extended that to 1min 20sec with 3km remaining, but was caught by Woods in the final 500 metres and went on to agonisingly miss out on the podium altogether.

Woods, aged 36 and racing for the second-tier International Cycling Union ProSeries team Israel-Premier Tech, was a two-time Vuelta a España stage winner but had not achieved that feat on his three previous Tour de France appearances.

He had to firstly pass Slovenian rider Matej Mohorič of Bahrain Victorious on the final climb, and then continued to eat into Jorgenson's lead before passing him and claiming the stage win in 4 hours 19min 41sec.

"I'm proud of myself and proud {of} my team," Woods said.

"It’s special to win here.

"I’m 36 years old, turning 37 this year, I’m not getting any younger.

"To win a Tour de France stage was my ultimate goal and I could see the window closing on to me.

"That was the goal.

"I wish I could say this victory today was planned but how the cards played, I was the most marked man."

A fine effort from Team TotalEnergies' Pierre Latour competing on his home Grand Tour earned second place at 28sec behind Woods, with Mohorič a further seven seconds back pipping Jorgenson to third place.

Jorgenson admitted afterwards he "started to feel empty with 1km to go", but insisted he was "happy with the risk I took, even if it didn’t pay off because my rivals were very strong".

The peloton featuring the general classification contenders had been content to allow the breakaway to build a lead of more than 15 minutes, paving the way for a battle between the two leaders Vingegaard and Pogačar.

Defending champion Vingegaard of Denmark and Team Jumbo-Visma led UAE Team Emirates' rider Pogačar by 25 seconds at the start of the day, after the Slovenian more-than halved the deficit with his stage six win on Thursday (July 6).

Two-time Tour winner Pogačar first attacked with around 1.5km to go, and found a gap with around 600m remaining.

He finished the stage in 4:28.00, with Vingegaard limiting the final gap to eight seconds to put his overall lead at 17 seconds going into the first rest day tomorrow.

Pogačar described the stage as a "small victory", while Vingegaard admitted "it would have been nicer to gain than lose time" but claimed "I came to the Tour knowing that the first week suited me less than what’s to come, so to be in the yellow jersey at the end of the first week satisfies me".

Third-placed Jai Hindley of Australia and Bora-Hansgrohe lost more than one minute and trails Vingegaard by 2:40.

Tomorrow is set to mark a rest day before the 167.2km hilly stage 10 from Vulcania to Issoire on Tuesday (July 11) featuring five categorised climbs and a downhill finale.