Van der Poel beats the heat and bunch to claim breakaway victory on Tour stage 9

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) powered to victory from the breakaway on stage 9 of the Tour de France in Ussel ahead of Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5). 

Stage 9, which looked to favour the breakaway, was reduced by 30km due to the soaring temperature forecast for Sunday, with the opening loop of the route removed. 

After a relentless battle, a star-studded breakaway would contest the finale, featuring Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Derek Gee-West and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Johannessen, Pidcock, Van der Poel, and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché). 

The group were held on a tight leash by UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Netcompany-Ineos, leaving the prospects of a stage victory hanging in the balance. 

However, Van der Poel launched a rocket on the final categorised climb, the Mont Bessou with 25km remaining, which split the break in half as only Baudin, Johannessen and Pidcock could match the power of the Dutchman. 

This acceleration and the willingness of the quartet to cooperate meant that the breakaway would have enough of an advantage to contest the stage victory.

There were no takers for an opportunistic attack in the closing kilometres from the front quartet, meaning the stage would be decided in a sprint. 

Van der Poel led the group under the flamme rouge, and it was the Dutchman who opened up the sprint. 

In the end, Van der Poel proved to be the quickest in the final dash to the line ahead of Johannessen and Pidcock to claim victory.

It marks the third Tour stage victory in the illustrious career of Van der Poel, adding to his successes in 2021 and 2025. 

Meanwhile, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished safely inside the peloton, six seconds behind the stage winner, meaning the world champion leads the Tour into the first rest day. Pogačar holds an advantage of 2:42 over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), with Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in third at 3:27.

The shortening of the stage meant that the intermediate sprint in Beynat came within the first 20km of the stage. 

This led Lidl-Trek to control the peloton in the opening phase of the stage, delivering a textbook lead-out for Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) to claim the maximum 25 points, ahead of Biniam Girmay (NSN) and Jasper Philipsen (Lidl-Trek), who took 20 and 16 points respectively. 

Following the intermediate sprint, there were countless attempts to form the day’s breakaway, groups briefly forming off the front of the peloton. 

An initial move featuring Dorian Godon (Netcompany-Ineos), Michel Hessman (Movistar), Xabier Mikel Azparren (Pinarello-Q36.5), Julian Alaphilippe and Marco Haller (Tudor), gained a slim advantage, but they were caught on the Côte de Naves with 110km remaining, thanks in part to Pidcock looking to form a selection. 

More attacks followed, but the most significant selection came with 96km to go when a 15-rider group formed that included Van der Poel. The group gained a member when Pidcock managed to jump across a 20-second gap from the peloton just a few kilometres later

Willing to make the race more selective, Simmons and Johannessen pushed on from the breakaway with 88km remaining, shortly before the foot of the Suc au May climb. 

On the Suc au May, with 83.5km to go, a spritely Pidcock jumped from the chasing group, bringing Gee-West and Van Eetvelt along for company as they looked to bridge a 30-second-plus gap before the top of the 3.8km climb. 

Before the Pidcock group made the junction to the front of the race, they were joined by Van der Poel, Castrillo, and Baudin, leaving eight riders at the head of the race at the top of the climb. 

However, despite the star-studded group out front, UAE Team Emirates-XRG kept the time gap on a tight leash, under 1:30.

In the final 40km, UAE reduced their efforts at the front of the bunch, with Netcompany-Ineos taking up the impetus, raising questions about the ambitions of those in the peloton, with Pedersen and Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) among the fast finishers still remaining.

The first initial signs of games within the breakaway came with 30km remaining, when Van der Poel started to stretch the group.

As the breakaway’s morale looked to have broken, with their time gap tumbling, Van der Poel rocketed up the lower slopes of the final categorised climb, the Mont Bessou, with 25km remaining. 

The Flying Dutchman split the breakaway with only Johannessen and Pidcock able to respond to the move, before Baudin joined on the descent. 

Disaster then seemingly struck for Pidcock, who suffered a mechanical, but fortunately, the Briton was able to recover to return to the front group. With a fast 20km run-in to the finish in Ussel, and with an advantage of 50-plus seconds on the peloton, the front quartet would have enough to contest the stage victory.