Tour de France Stage 9: Van Der Poel Wins After Stifling Day on the Attack

Mathieu van der Poel reignited his Classics mojo Sunday, pulling off the third Tour de France stage win of his career in taking a small breakaway sprint into Ussel.

The Dutch Alpecin-Premier Tech rider outgalloped Tobias Hallan Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) at the end of what was an Ardennes Classic-type slog.

They marked him inside the final 2km but he led out from the front and held those others off.

Race leader Tadej Pogačar finished safely in a very reduced main group, crossing the line six seconds back.

Van der Poel and the other three riders gained their place out front as part of a much larger early move. It went clear inside the first 64km of racing and originally numbered 17 riders.

Pogačar’s UAE Emirates-XRG team put loads of work in chasing and looked like they wanted to bring it back, but they eventually threw the towel in on the chase.

Van der Poel hammered it over the day’s final climb, forcing a split with the other three and working together with them towards the finish. He led into the final kilometer and then launched a blistering sprint from the front, collecting a very important win.

“It was a super hard day,” he said. “The start of the Tour was not great for our team, but like always we stayed calm.

“We have a really nice group here and kept believing it would turn around, maybe not today, maybe the second week, maybe third week.

“But it is really nice to go to the first rest day with a win.”

Hammering in a heatwave

Following two days of sprint finishes, the Tour ramped up a couple of notches on Sunday with a long, draining, and very hot stage akin to the Ardennes Classics.

The 154.6km stage from Malemore to Ussel was originally due to be 30km longer but was reduced due to stifling heat.

The aggression began from the start but the Lidl-Trek team of Mads Pedersen brought it all back together prior to the very early intermediate sprint in Beynat, just 13.9km after the start.

He duly won the uphill sprint, beating Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and others.

Once that was done the attacking ramped up again and a 15-man move eventually went clear. It included very strong riders such as Van der Poel, Johannessen, Baudin, Tobias Foss (Netcompany Ineos), Derek Gee-West, Quinn Simmons (both Lidl-Trek), Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Lars Craps, Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarché), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Ewen Costiou (Groupama-FDJ United), Marc Hirschi (Tudor) and Jordan Jegat (Total Energies).

Clément Braz Afonso (Groupama-FDJ United) bridged the gap at km 61 and Pidcock did the same approximately 3km later.

Derailleur drama on descent

Pidcock was riding very strongly and led the break over the top of the Suc au May category 2 climb, with this surge in activity whittling the front group to himself, Johannessen, Baudin, Gee-West, Castrillo, Van Eetvelt, Simmons and Van der Poel.

Pogačar’s UAE Emirates-XRG team was doing all the chasing behind and hemmed the break’s lead down to one minute with 50km to go. However the break kept up its belief, with UAE backing off, and Van der Poel then put in a huge surge heading to the summit of the day’s final categorized climb, Mont Bessou.

Pidcock and Johannessen joined him, but the Briton had problems with his gearing on the descent and was momentarily left behind. He gave his rear mech a few belts with his shoe and managed to get back on, as did Baudin.

They raced in to the finish, where Van der Poel showed he had the most left to give.

“I spent a lot of energy trying to keep the break alive. There was a lot of pressure from the bunch,” he said.

“The roads were horrible for a breakaway, a headwind the whole day. We fought for it. I’m happy to finish it off.”

Pogačar retains his 2:42 advantage over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), with best young rider Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG) remaining third. Pedersen holds green, and Pogačar leads the mountains competition.

The Tour’s first rest day follows on Monday.

Final Kilometer Stage 9

Results: Stage 9