Alpecin – Premier Tech rider Mathieu van der Poel prevailed in a scramble for the finish line on Stage 9 of the Tour de France on Sunday, securing his first Grand Tour stage win of the year.
Tobias Johannessen and Tom Pidcock finished second and third, while UAE Team Emirates-XRG's Slovenian four-time champion Tadej Pogacar crossed the finish line soon after to maintain his overall lead.
“Flying Dutchman” Van der Poel sprinted to the third Tour de France victory of his career in a stage that was shortened due to a heatwave warning.
After kicking on with 25km to go, Van der Poel led out the sprint for almost the entire final kilometre.
“It was a super hard day, the start of the Tour was not super great for our team, but I think like always we stayed calm,” Van der Poel told TNT Sports.
“We have a really nice group here and kept believing that it will turn around, maybe not today but second or third week, but it’s really nice to go to the first rest day with a first win.
“[The heat] was for sure better than the first few days. I was struggling and finding it difficult to recover, even from the easier [stages]. The past few days I’ve felt a bit better and today I finally had some legs to go for it.”
Van der Poel said the sprint finish was particularly challenging.
“I was not so sure. 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, headwind the whole day. We really fought for it, and I'm happy to finish it off.”
Pogacar has two stage wins to his name this Tour – in Stages 3 and 6. He overcame a gap of seven minutes and 53 seconds and turned it into an overall lead of two minutes and 42 seconds.
On Sunday, neither Pogacar nor Isaac del Toro pushed too hard for victory. Pogacar came home 11th to retain his yellow jersey, ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).
The ride from Malemort to Ussel, shortened by 30km due to heat risks, began with several attacks and when a breakaway group of five opened a gap, the peloton caught them before Cote de Naves.
The riders braved intense temperatures of 34° Celsius as they covered 46.9km in the first hour.
After a rest day on Monday, the race will continue on Tuesday with a mountainous 166.6-km ride from Aurillac to Le Lioran.
Stage winners
1). Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech): 3:27:51
2). Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility): same time
3). Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro): same time
Overall leaders
1). Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): 32:17:04
2). Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike): +2:42
3. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): +3:27
