2026 Tour de France Stage 9 Report: Mauriac→Ussel—Heat Wave Cuts 30 km, Van der Poel Solos the Final Kilometer

On July 12, 2026, the Tour de France reached Stage 9, starting from Malemort in Corrèze and finishing in Ussel, also in Corrèze. This was the final stage before the first rest day of this year’s Tour, and the first time the entire peloton shifted the battleground into the Massif Central and the Limousin hills of central France, after a series of brutal battles in the Pyrenees.

Originally, this was supposed to be a long-distance hilly attrition war of “184.8 kilometers with 3,200 meters of climbing.” But Corrèze issued a red heat warning before the stage, and ASO cut roughly 30 kilometers from the route, shortening the actual race distance to 154.6 kilometers. That single cut transformed what was expected to be a long, grinding stage into a high-density, almost breathless, classic-style selection race.

And standing on the top step of the podium in the end was Mathieu VAN DER POEL. He made his decisive move 24.5 kilometers from the finish on the Mont Bessou, took over the lead himself in the final kilometer, then launched his sprint on the slight uphill run-in to hold off Tobias JOHANNESSEN, taking his first win of this Tour and the 3rd Tour de France stage victory of his career.

Here is the full account and breakdown of this stage.

1. Stage Fundamentals: A Two-City Route Through Corrèze

Time, Place, and Those Numbers That “Can’t Simply Be Multiplied”

Stage 9 took place on Sunday, July 12, 2026. Both the start in Malemort and the finish in Ussel are within Corrèze, meaning this was a “within-the-department” stage—team buses didn’t have to cross half of France, but the roads the riders faced were far more punishing than the seemingly gentle curve on the map.

Let’s get the key specifications straight first, because there are two sets of numbers for this stage, and mixing them up would cause serious errors:

Item	Original Route (CTYeh database record)	Actual Race
Distance	184.8 km	154.6 km
Total climbing	Approx. 3,208 m	Official stage page lists 3,300 m; official race report text says “approx. 3,000 m”
Neutral start time	13:15 (the customary time for the first two stages of this Tour)	13:45 (actual flag drop at 13:57)
Expected arrival	—	17:22
Number of starters	—	176 riders
Taiwan viewing start time	—	19:20

Here we must be transparent: the 184.8 km and 3,208 m of climbing logged in the CTYeh database are the specifications of the original route; due to the red heat warning, ASO adjusted the route before the stage, cutting about 30 kilometers, and the actual race covered only 154.6 km. An official pre-race notice briefly showed a figure of 155.5 km, which was a version from during the adjustment process; ultimately, both the official results page and the standings page use 154.6 km as the standard.

Why emphasize this? Because the winner’s time of 3 hours 27 minutes 51 seconds corresponds to 154.6 km, not 184.8 km. If you divided by the original distance, you’d get an absurd average speed. Using the correct distance, the average speed for this stage was approximately 44.7 km/h—producing that average on a route with four categorized climbs, around 3,000 meters of elevation gain, and temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius is itself the most direct evidence of just how brutal this race was.

The Massif Central and Limousin Hills: A Terrain Taiwanese Riders Know Well

Corrèze sits in the southeastern part of the Limousin region, right on the western edge of the Massif Central. The defining feature of this terrain is not “one big mountain climbed from bottom to top,” but rather broken, continuous, endless rolling hills: river valleys carve out countless short climbs and descents, the roads weave repeatedly through forests, pastureland, and small villages, and there is rarely more than five kilometers of flat road in a row.

For professional riders, the destructive power of this terrain follows a completely different logic from the high mountains. A mountain stage is “a long period of threshold output”—you can pace yourself, you can calculate power, you can mentally break it into segments. But the Massif Central’s relentless succession of short climbs forces repeated anaerobic shocks: every short steep pitch after a corner demands a fresh acceleration, every descent requires staying on the wheel of the rider ahead, and over the course of a full day, what accumulates is not “one big cost” but “compound interest from hundreds of small costs.”

The Limousin hills have always been a paradise for breakaway riders in Tour de France history, precisely for this reason: the terrain makes it difficult for the peloton to maintain a steady, high-speed clamp, and once a few veterans with strong descending skills and anaerobic capacity are up the road, the cost of organizing an effective chase from behind is multiplied several times over. The final outcome of this stage was almost a textbook demonstration of this geographic characteristic.

Why This Stage Was Placed Before the Rest Day

In terms of race design, placing a hilly breakaway stage before the first rest day is a very typical ASO move. There are three layers of reasoning:

First, the GC riders have just come down from the Pyrenees, with their bodies in a state of “fatigue has accumulated but hasn’t yet been reset by a rest day.” At this point, a pure climbing stage would be too cruel, and a pure flat sprint stage would waste television airtime; a hilly stage sits right in between, allowing the GC group to choose not to fight while keeping the possibility of a fight alive at any moment.

Second, the day before a rest day is the day when breakaway riders are psychologically most willing to gamble. Tomorrow they can lie flat; today, even if they completely empty themselves, they don’t have to worry about paying interest the next day. This “unlimited stakes” mentality is one of the fundamental reasons the breakaway battle was fought so fiercely.

Third, for the narrative rhythm of the entire race, the end of the first week needs a standalone story. This stage certainly delivered one: a breakaway melee that couldn’t take shape for over 50 kilometers, an extreme-weather decision that shortened the route by 30 kilometers, and a world-class all-rounder who had been in poor form all week pocketing the entire race in the final 25 kilometers.

2. The Heat Wave Rewrites the Script: Red Heat Warning and the 30 Kilometers That Were Cut

A Decision Already Made Before the Stage

The true protagonist of this stage was not any rider, but the weather.

Corrèze issued a red heat warning before the stage—one of the highest levels in France’s meteorological alert system, indicating that the local heatwave posed a clear public health risk. Faced with this warning, ASO’s response was not “let’s see how it goes once the race starts,” but rather adjusting the route directly before the stage, cutting about 30 kilometers.

Notably, what was cut was the early part of the route, while all four categorized climbs were kept in full. This trade-off is very telling and reveals the organizer’s way of thinking: if you need to shorten a stage, the least controversial approach is to remove the portion that “exists purely to accumulate distance and fatigue,” rather than touching the key terrain that decides the outcome. The four categorized climbs are the skeleton of the stage, the source of polka-dot jersey points, and the focus of television coverage; cutting them would have neutered the competitive meaning of the stage. By contrast, those thirty kilometers of rolling roads at the front functionally served only to “keep everyone out in the sun for an extra hour”—and under a red heat warning, the marginal benefit of that hour was negative.

At the same time, the neutral start was also pushed back from the 13:15 customary for the first two stages of this Tour to 13:45, with the actual flag drop at 13:57. This delay was likewise a direct consequence of the heatwave: the peak of surface temperatures on a French summer afternoon typically falls in the early afternoon, and pushing it back by over forty minutes shifted the weight of the entire race toward the evening, so that riders weren’t sprinting at full effort during the hottest window.

Over 30°C, Softening Roads, and the Riders’ Battle to Cool Down

On race day, temperatures exceeded 30°C, and on some sections the asphalt softened under the heat. It’s a detail that sounds trivial but is actually extremely troublesome.

What does softening road surface mean? For riders, first, it means increased rolling resistance—tires sink into the softened asphalt, energy is absorbed by the road, and the same power output no longer produces the same speed. Second, the feel of grip on descents changes; the feedback from a softer surface at high-speed cornering is different from usual, adding extra psychological burden for those willing to push hard on descents. Third, and most practically, is the thermal load on tires and the bike: brake disc cooling and tire pressure fluctuations under high heat are extra concerns for mechanics and riders on the day.

The riders’ response is straightforward: pour water throughout, use ice packs to cool down. This is the standard procedure for pro races on scorching days—feeders hand up not just energy gels and sports drinks, but also plenty of plain water to pour over heads, and ice packs to be stuffed into the back pockets of jerseys, placed against the carotid artery and the back of the neck. The former relies on evaporation to carry away surface body heat; the latter uses conduction to directly cool the blood passing through the neck.

From a Race Management Perspective: Why “Shortening” Makes More Sense Than “Cancelling”

When professional cycling races face extreme weather, the handling logic can generally be divided into three tiers. Here’s an analytical breakdown (this is an interpretation of general race operation principles, not an official statement from this stage):

Tier one is route modification. Shortening the distance, changing the start/finish points, or bypassing high-risk sections. This is the least damaging approach—the stage still runs, points still count, the general classification continues, just with fewer kilometers. Stage 9 adopted this tier.

Tier two is format adjustment. For example, cancelling intermediate sprints, changing the timing method, or reclassifying the stage as “not counting toward certain points.” This approach alters the competitive structure of the race and is more controversial.

Tier three is cancellation or reclassification. The stage is not run at all, or after completion, results are declared void. This is the last resort, involving massive commercial and broadcast losses, and is typically only activated when safety risks truly cannot be managed.

Looking at this ladder, ASO’s handling of Stage 9 was fairly standard and restrained: since the red alert had already been issued, making a last-minute decision at the start would only throw teams, spectators, broadcasters, and local authorities into chaos. Deciding beforehand, cutting the least functional opening section, and delaying the start time is a solution that preserves both “safety” and “race integrity.”

It’s worth adding that shortening a stage does not make the race easier. This stage is the perfect counterexample. When a route’s climbing density remains unchanged but the distance is cut by 20 percent, the result is higher intensity per kilometer. The breakaway battle that could have brewed slowly was compressed into a shorter time window; the fight that could have been saved for later had to start early. The fact that no breakaway could form for over 50 kilometers and the peloton was whittled down to around 70 riders by kilometer 46 is largely a manifestation of this “compression effect.” From this perspective, those 30 kilometers that were cut didn’t make the race boring—they made it fiercer.

Extreme Weather Will Be a Recurring Theme for Future Tours

Zooming out: the frequency and intensity of European summer heatwaves have been rising in recent years, and the Tour de France is fixed in July. This means “heatwave response” is no longer an occasional, ad-hoc measure but a routine issue that must be institutionalized.

From a race design perspective, expected directions include: flexible start times (like this stage’s 30-minute delay), flexible stage length clauses (pre-set shortening plans rather than drawing lines on the fly), relaxed feeding rules (allowing more frequent neutral water stops on extreme weather days), and real-time monitoring of road conditions. From a team perspective, it’s a continued arms race in cooling equipment, pre-cooling protocols, electrolyte strategies, and recovery plans on rest days.

For Taiwanese cyclists, these aren’t distant pro-racing issues. The hot, humid conditions of summer riding in Taiwan impose a perceived burden at least as heavy as the dry heat of central France. This section will return to this topic in the “Taiwan Perspective” chapter at the end.

III. Pre-Stage Situation: Motivation Inventory for the Last Day Before the Rest Day

General Classification: A Pool of “Seemingly Calm” Water

Entering Stage 9, the general classification of this year’s Tour had seen no changes for two consecutive stages. The top 15 after Stage 7 and after Stage 8 were exactly the same in ranking and gaps:

Rank	Rider	Team	Gap
1	Tadej POGACAR	UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG	—
2	Jonas VINGEGAARD	TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE	+2’42"
3	Isaac DEL TORO	UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG	+3’27"
4	Remco EVENEPOEL	RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE	+3’30"
5	Juan AYUSO	LIDL-TREK	+3’34"
6	Paul SEIXAS	DECATHLON CMA CGM TEAM	+3’55"
7	Florian LIPOWITZ	RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE	+4’00"
8	Lenny MARTINEZ	BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS	+4’21"
9	Mattias SKJELMOSE	LIDL-TREK	+4’57"
10	Mathias VACEK	LIDL-TREK	+7’10"
11	Egan BERNAL	NETCOMPANY INEOS CYCLING TEAM	+9’12"
12	Sean QUINN	EF EDUCATION - EASYPOST	+9’35"
13	Tobias JOHANNESSEN	UNO-X MOBILITY	+9’42"
14	Ilan VAN WILDER	SOUDAL QUICK-STEP	+9’45"
15	Tom PIDCOCK	PINARELLO-Q36.5 PRO CYCLING TEAM	+9’50"

Tadej POGACAR has worn the yellow jersey firmly since conquering the Tourmalet on Stage 6. On that stage, he not only won dominantly and took yellow, but also surpassed André Darrigade’s record of 22 Tour de France stage victories—incidentally, Darrigade is a legendary sprinter from the Landes region, giving this milestone extra symbolic weight in France.

Second-placed Jonas VINGEGAARD trails by 2’42". Riders from 3rd to 9th are packed between 3’27" and 4’57", a very dense group. Then a gap appears from 10th place: Mathias VACEK is 7’10" back, and 11th-placed Egan BERNAL is already at 9’12".

This “9-minute gap” is crucial because it determines the breakaway allowance line for Stage 9.

Escape Permission Lines: Who Can Go, and Who Gets Chased

In a Grand Tour, whether a breakaway can succeed depends less on how strong the riders in it are, and more on whether those riders pose a threat on the General Classification. The yellow jersey team will go down the GC list one by one: How far behind is this rider? How much time could he take back today? If he takes it back, does he move into a position I care about?

Looking at the situation ahead of Stage 9:

• The group of riders more than 9 minutes down—BERNAL (+9’12"), QUINN (+9’35"), JOHANNESSEN (+9’42"), VAN WILDER (+9’45"), PIDCOCK (+9’50")—are theoretically all on the edge of being “allowed to go.” Let them ride away, even if they claw back a minute and a half, the top 9 on GC remains completely unaffected.
• But this line is flexible. How much leash UAE is willing to give depends on their assessment of the mountain stages to come, and also on whether the yellow jersey himself fancies another stage win today.
• And the slightly uphill finish in Aurillac just happens to be the type of finale Pogačar likes. That adds an extra layer of suspense to the whole day: Is UAE “controlling the breakaway,” or “preparing to go themselves”?

As it turned out, UAE spent the entire day controlling the pace at the front of the peloton—that in itself sent a clear signal.

Green Jersey: A Tug-of-War Being Rewritten by the Heat

The story in the points classification is even more compelling. The points changes after Stage 7 and Stage 8 are as follows:

Rider	After Stage 7	After Stage 8	Two-Stage Gain
Mads PEDERSEN	204	228	+24
Tim MERLIER	134	213	+79
Biniam GIRMAY	145	203	+58
Jasper PHILIPSEN	126	175	+49
Max KANTER	140	172	+32
Olav KOOIJ	70	110	+40

You can see that Mads PEDERSEN’s lead is being eroded. Tim MERLIER won back-to-back on Stages 7 and 8, banking 79 points over those two days and compressing the gap from 70 points down to 15. Biniam GIRMAY has also been steadily accumulating, now sitting on 203 points.

In other words, at the start of Stage 9, Pedersen’s green jersey wasn’t exactly comfortable. This also directly explains why Lidl-Trek sent the entire team to the front just 13.9 km into the stage—on a hilly day, the maximum points on offer at the intermediate sprint (Pedersen took the full 25 points on this stage) were absolutely not to be missed. In a battle this tight, every single point could be the deciding factor.

Teams in Need of Visibility

The essence of a breakaway day is an “auction for visibility.” Every team does the math before the stage: What do I need today?

• Lotto Intermarché: Already lost Arnaud DE LIE (abandoned) this edition, and have spent the whole week getting camera time through attackers like Baptiste VEISTROFFER and Liam SLOCK, who have also taken the most aggressive rider award two days running (S7 VEISTROFFER, S8 SLOCK). A team like this will absolutely send riders up the road on a hilly stage.
• Alpecin-Premier Tech: A miserable week so far. Jasper PHILIPSEN has come up empty in all three sprints, and Van der Poel’s form hasn’t returned either. Since their debut in 2021, this team has won at least one stage in every single Tour de France—and the weight of that record grows heavier with each passing day before the first week ends.
• Uno-X Mobility: Torstein TRÆEN crashed on Stage 6 and was a DNS on Stage 7, and the team just lost their yellow jersey dream. They need a new storyline, and Tobias JOHANNESSEN happens to sit 13th on GC, 9’42" down—right in the “allowed to go” window.
• Pinarello-Q36.5: Tom PIDCOCK lost a huge chunk of time to Pogačar on Stage 6 and rolls into Stage 9 nearly 10 minutes down. For him, GC is no longer the goal—but that also buys him the freedom to attack.
• EF Education-EasyPost: Alex BAUDIN has been riding an aggressive line all week and already has visibility in the mountains classification (13 points, 4th).
• TotalEnergies, Groupama-FDJ United, Movistar, Tudor, etc.: The need for French teams to get visibility on French roads needs no explanation; the other mid-sized teams are all still looking for their first-week report card.

Add all these motivations together, and you get the fuel for that frantic 50-plus kilometres of attacking and counter-attacking after the start of Stage 9.

4. Route Technical Analysis: The Four Categorized Climbs and That Uphill Finish

Four Climbs, Four Functions

Over the actual 154.6 km of racing, there are four categorized climbs. Their positions and functions within the stage are completely different, and each deserves a closer look.

Climb 1: Côte de Naves (summit at km 46)

Positioned in the front half of the stage. This climb’s function isn’t to decide the race—it’s to filter. If the attacks keep flying from the gun, the first categorized climb becomes a natural sieve: the riders who still have legs stay at the front, while those lacking form get spat out here.

The live action matched this role perfectly—by the summit of Côte de Naves, the peloton had already been whittled down to roughly 70 riders. From a starting field of 176, that means over 60% of the riders were already dropped by kilometre 46. On a day when the stage had been shortened, that number is remarkable.

Climb 2: Suc au May (Cat. 2, 3.8 km / 7.7% avg., summit at km 98.5)

This is the steepest and most decisive climb of the day. At 3.8 km and 7.7% average, it fits the “short and vicious” profile in Grand Tour terms—not long enough for pure climbers to fully exploit their power-to-weight advantage, but steep enough that heavier all-rounders have to dig deep.

To put it in terms familiar to riders: 3.8 km at 7.7% means an elevation gain of roughly 290 metres. At pro racing speed, this climb offers an attack window of about 10 to 12 minutes—right on the border between anaerobic and aerobic effort, making it the classic “bridge-building window.” In fact, the most decisive move of the stage happened exactly on this climb.

Climb 3: Côte de la Croix du Pey

Positioned after Suc au May and before Mont Bessou. This climb plays the role of stress test in the stage: when the chasing group behind is working at full gas, the breakaway’s gap gets squeezed to its tightest here. And that’s exactly what happened—the gap dropped to under a minute at one point.

Climb 4: Mont Bessou (Cat. 4, summit 24.5 km from the finish)

This is the decisive climb. Its Cat. 4 rating means it’s neither long nor particularly steep; but position is everything. A short, punchy climb 24.5 km from the finish sits right in the sweet spot of “far enough from the line to make a gap stick, but close enough that it can’t be defended.”

This is where Van der Poel made his move.

A Slippery Finish: How a False Flat Changes Sprint Logic

The finish in Sarlat is preceded by a sustained false-flat run-in. This setup may have a bigger impact on the race result than the four categorized climbs combined.

A false-flat finish changes three things:

First, it compresses the value of drafting. The core of a flat sprint is “sitting on wheels to save energy, then exploding in the final 200 meters.” But on a false flat, gravity constantly bleeds your speed; once you ease off, you slow down quickly, and the proportion of energy saved by sitting in the wheels drops. This reduces the penalty for “launching early.”

Second, it dilutes the advantage of pure sprinters. A false-flat finish favors “puncheur-sprinters” and all-rounders—riders with a high power-to-weight ratio who can sustain 20 to 30 seconds of high output under deep fatigue. This is exactly the home turf of riders like Van der Poel and Pedersen.

Third, it makes the chase harder. This is crucial on this stage. When the breakaway ahead uses four-rider cooperation and the chasing group behind has to organize a rotating paceline on a false flat, the efficiency gap is amplified by the terrain. In the final 5 kilometers to the red flag, the gap only dropped from 40 seconds to 20 seconds—the false flat did the breakaway plenty of favors.

Incidentally, the uphill finish in Sarlat also suits Pogacar very well—which is why, throughout the day, the suspense of “will the yellow jersey go himself” never fully disappeared.

A Road with a Memory: Echoes of the 2020 Stage in Sarran

This route is not entirely new. It shares the Suc au May and Côte de la Croix du Pey climbs with the 2020 Tour de France stage in Sarran, Correze.

That 2020 stage was won by Swiss rider Marc HIRSCHI—one of the significant breakthroughs of his career. Interestingly, Hirschi is riding for Tudor Pro Cycling Team this year and was in this race (he finished 28th, at +6").

This kind of “route memory” has real value for professional riders. The climbs you’ve ridden, the corners you remember, knowing where it suddenly steepens after a certain turn—these are pieces of information you can’t fully read from a roadbook. Meanwhile, for teams studying the stage, the race footage from 2020 is the best textbook: who attacked where back then, how the peloton reacted, how the rhythm on Suc au May was set—all of it can be used as a reference for this year.

Judging by the result, the character of this road hasn’t changed in six years: it remains a route that rewards attackers and punishes the hesitant.

5. Race Report (Part 1): The Opening 13.9 km—A Green Jersey Battle Over in Twenty Minutes

The flag dropped at 13:57, with 176 riders setting off in temperatures above 30 degrees. And the first battle of this stage was over by the 13.9 km mark.

The intermediate sprint was set at Beynat, positioned very early in the stage, and the road leading into it was a rising false flat. This setup was extremely significant for the green jersey competition: an intermediate sprint on a false flat is inherently disadvantageous for pure sprinters and favorable for endurance-type sprinters.

Lidl-Trek had clearly studied this thoroughly. From the gun, they used the entire team to escort Pedersen, with Derek GEE-WEST and Mathias VACEK leading him out. At the start of a stage where breakaway attacks could explode at any moment, committing the whole team’s resources to an intermediate sprint at km 13.9 was itself a strategic declaration: the green jersey takes priority over today’s stage victory.

The result followed the script perfectly:

Intermediate Sprint (Beynat, km 13.9)	Rider	Team
1	Mads PEDERSEN	LIDL-TREK
2	Biniam GIRMAY	NSN CYCLING TEAM
3	Jasper PHILIPSEN	ALPECIN-PREMIER TECH

Pedersen took the full 25 points, Girmay was second, Philipsen third. After the intermediate sprint, the green jersey standings became: Pedersen 253, Girmay 223, Merlier 213, Philipsen 191.

Merlier’s Collapse: The Man Who Won Two Straight Stages Was Out by Kilometer 14

The real news wasn’t in the top three, but in the name that didn’t appear on the list.

Tim Merlier was already struggling badly in the heat and began losing contact shortly after the intermediate sprint.

This was one of the most dramatic contrasts of the stage. Merlier had won stages 7 and 8 back-to-back, banking 79 points and cutting Pedersen’s green jersey lead from 70 points down to just 15. Anyone looking at the standings before the stage would have thought the green jersey battle was about to reach its boiling point. Instead, less than twenty minutes into stage 9, he was dropped on the false-flat intermediate sprint, then fell completely out of contention, scoring zero points for the entire stage.

This has two layers of significance.

The first is the substantive shift in the green jersey battle. Pedersen took 25 points at the intermediate sprint and added 15 more for 6th place at the finish, banking 40 points in one stage; Merlier got nothing. The gap went from 15 points straight out to 55. In a single stage, the green jersey went from “precariously close” to “firmly re-secured.”

The second is a brutal reminder of the heatwave. Merlier wasn’t in bad form—he’d won two stages just days earlier. He was beaten by the weather. Pure sprinters, who are larger and produce higher absolute power outputs, naturally have worse heat dissipation efficiency in extreme temperatures than lighter climbers: heat production is proportional to body mass, while heat dissipation is proportional to body surface area—the larger the body, the worse that ratio. When temperatures exceed 30 degrees, the road surface softens, and you have to sprint full gas on a false flat, this physiological disadvantage is maximized.

For pure sprinters, this stage wasn’t a “hilly stage with a chance” at all—it was the first round of a knockout tournament.

6. Race Report (Part 2): Fifty Kilometers, and the Breakaway Just Wouldn’t Form

The moment the intermediate sprint ended, the attacks exploded. And not one wave, not three waves—it was over 50 continuous kilometers of chaos that refused to settle.

This is uncommon in Grand Tours. The rhythm of most breakaway days is: within 10 to 30 kilometers of the start, a certain attack is tacitly allowed by the peloton, the break is established, and then it’s four or five hours of routine. But stage 9 wasn’t like that—the stage had been shortened by 30 kilometers, which meant the value of the breakaway became extremely high (a shorter race means the gap is harder to pull back), so more riders were willing to gamble; meanwhile, in the peloton, UAE’s standards for who they’d let go were stricter. Both supply and demand went up, and the result was that no one was willing to concede.

Waves of Attacks

Following the official race report’s sequence, the attacks in the first 50 kilometers can be roughly broken down into these waves:

First wave: Maxim VAN GILS, Chris HARPER, Kévin VAUQUELIN, Richard CARAPAZ. This group’s composition is intriguing: Van Gils is a classic punchy hills attacker, Harper is an endurance climber, Vauquelin is the home nation’s hope, and Carapaz is a name of former Grand Tour overall contender caliber. That last name is precisely why this wave was brought back—letting Carapaz go carries too high a psychological cost for many teams.

Counter-wave: Filippo GANNA and Mathieu VAN DER POEL, along with Felix ENGELHARDT and others. This wave was tactically significant. Ganna and Van der Poel appearing in the same attack simultaneously meant putting the two strongest “engines” of the day’s peloton at the front. Any team looking to control the race had to react to that combination—which is also why this wave failed to establish a gap.

Julian ALAPHILIPPE and Marco HALLER’s descent attack. The duo launched their move on a winding downhill section. Using a descent as an attacking tool is a classic tactic: on descents, the peloton’s line stretches out, drafting efficiency drops, and technically skilled riders can create a real gap at lower power outputs. Alaphilippe is a master of this craft.

Bridge attempts: Netcompany INEOS and Movistar both sent riders across. This showed the entire peloton’s attention was completely absorbed by the action up front, with no team willing to let anyone else establish a solo advantage.

There were no clear lulls between these four waves, meaning that from kilometer 14 to kilometer 46, the peloton was essentially pushing at near-full intensity. In temperatures above 30 degrees, with the road surface softening, the cost of that pace was exorbitant.

Côte de Naves (km 46): The Peloton Cut Down by Sixty Percent

The bill for that cost came due at the first categorized climb.

On the Côte de Naves, Pinarello-Q36.5 moved to the front, and Pidcock began testing. This was his first show of intent on the stage—using the team to collectively drive the pace at the front, then applying pressure himself on the climb to see who could follow.

The points at the summit were taken by Valentin PARET-PEINTRE (Soudal Quick-Step). That point mattered for his personal climbing classification (he finished the day tied for 5th in the mountains standings with 12 points), and it also illustrated that in the chaos before the breakaway had formed, the climb points were up for grabs by anyone.

But the most important number on this climb wasn’t the points—it was the headcount: the main peloton had been whittled down to roughly 70 riders at the summit.

From 176 starters to only about 70 left in the main group by kilometer 46—that means over 100 riders had already been shelled out of contention within the first third of the stage. That’s the elimination rate you’d expect from a mountain stage, yet this was, on paper, just a “hilly stage.” Merlier had long since been dropped far behind.

That number is the single best piece of evidence in the entire race report for “heatwave + shortened stage = explosive intensity.”

The Attacks Didn’t Stop

After the summit, the attacks continued. Vauquelin and Matteo JORGENSON went again, Carapaz chased, then it was brought back. By kilometer 57, Van der Poel attacked once more—the official report describes him as playing a dominant role in this series of moves.

This is worth remembering: Van der Poel had already launched at least two proactive attacks within the first hour of the stage. His decisive strike on Mont Bessou later wasn’t the product of “saving energy for the finale”—it was something he could still produce after a full day of hard racing.

7. Race Action (Part 3): The Bridge Drama at Suc au May

Gee-West’s Move

After more than 50 kilometers of racing, the first move to create a genuinely meaningful gap came from Derek GEE-WEST.

The move itself was layered with nuance. Gee-West’s job at the start of the day was to shepherd Pedersen to the intermediate sprint. Once that task was complete, he switched from “sapper” to “pawn”—Lidl-Trek placed him up the road, effectively planting a flag inside the breakaway.

Around 10 riders followed this move, including Van der Poel, Quinn SIMMONS, Lennert VAN EETVELT, and Jordan JEGAT. Simmons is also a Lidl-Trek rider, meaning Lidl-Trek had two pawns up front at once.

According to the official account, this move later swelled into a 16-rider front group, with the final additions including Tobias JOHANNESSEN (Uno-X Mobility), Tom PIDCOCK (Pinarello-Q36.5), and Clément BRAZ AFONSO (Groupama-FDJ United).

A 16-rider front group, under normal circumstances, should have quickly opened up three or four minutes. But this was not a normal day—UAE was driving hard behind, and the 16 riders were too fractured among themselves (Lidl-Trek had two men, some wanted to save energy, others were already spent from the earlier fighting), so cooperation never materialized.

Pidcock’s Bridge: One of the Day’s Most Critical Moves

The real drama unfolded before Suc au May.

First, Johannessen and Simmons attacked from the front group—the first split within the group, and an inevitable one: if 16 riders can’t go fast enough, then cut it down again.

Then came the most beautiful segment of the stage: Pidcock bridged across from the Pogacar group.

The difficulty of this must be made clear. Pidcock wasn’t in the front group at the time; he was in the GC group behind—the one containing Pogacar. To chase down a front group that had already established a gap and was climbing, meant he had to ride faster up the climb than everyone ahead of him, solo and without shelter.

The team radio encouraged him to go, and he went. He chose to close the gap on the steep sections—a highly astute judgment: bridging on flatter terrain, aerodynamic drag eats away most of your advantage; but on steep slopes, speeds are low, wind resistance is minimal, and the power-to-weight ratio differential is maximized into time gained. For a rider like Pidcock—light and explosive—the steep pitches were his most efficient bridging tool.

Gee-West and Van Eetvelt latched onto his wheel, effectively getting a free ride. Shortly after, Van der Poel, Pablo CASTRILLO (Movistar), and Alex BAUDIN (EF Education-EasyPost) also made the junction.

An Eight-Man Lead Group Forms, Then—Just 1 Minute 25 Seconds

Piccolo leads over the top of the Suc au May (km 98.5). The 3.8 km climb averaging 7.7% concludes, leaving eight riders out front:

Eight-Man Lead Group	Team
Mathieu VAN DER POEL	ALPECIN-PREMIER TECH
Tobias JOHANNESSEN	UNO-X MOBILITY
Tom PIDCOCK	PINARELLO-Q36.5 PRO CYCLING TEAM
Alex BAUDIN	EF EDUCATION - EASYPOST
Quinn SIMMONS	LIDL-TREK
Derek GEE-WEST	LIDL-TREK
Lennert VAN EETVELT	—
Pablo CASTRILLO	MOVISTAR TEAM

This is a very strong list: a world-class all-rounder, two riders inside the top 15 on GC, one rider near the top of the mountains classification, two Lidl-Trek attackers, plus a Spanish climbing prospect.

Then comes the most incredible number of the stage: the day’s maximum gap was just 1 minute 25 seconds—and it occurred right here, at the summit of the Suc au May.

One minute and twenty-five seconds. In a 154.6 km stage, a breakaway of eight first-rate riders, having covered nearly two-thirds of the distance and crested the day’s steepest climb, held a maximum lead of just one minute and twenty-five seconds.

That number says it all: the peloton never let go. From start to finish, this wasn’t a “permitted” breakaway; it was a “chased” breakaway. And from the summit of the Suc au May onward, the gap would only shrink.

8. Race Report (Part 4): UAE’s Pressure and the Suffocating Moment on the Croix du Pey

Why UAE Applied the Pressure

UAE Team Emirates-XRG set the pace at the front of the peloton all day, with Tim WELLENS and Felix GROSSSCHARTNER doing the lion’s share of the work, while Adam YATES was also part of the chase.

This was a yellow jersey team doing something it didn’t have to do the day before a rest day. There are at least three layers of reasoning:

First, the uphill finish in Issoire suits Pogačar. A slightly uphill finish is terrain he has proven time and again since early in his career that he can win on. Having just surpassed Darrigade’s record of 22 stage wins on Stage 6, the marginal value of one more stage win remains high for him. All day, the question of “will the yellow jersey come up himself” never disappeared—and that question itself was the biggest weapon for pressuring the breakaway.

Second, risk management. Among the eight riders up front were Pidcock (+9’50") and Johannessen (+9’42"). For these two, taking back a minute and a half in a stage is neither here nor there, but if the gap had spiraled out to three or four minutes or more, the middle structure of the GC would have been reshuffled. For a team simultaneously protecting the yellow jersey (Pogačar) and the white jersey (Isaac DEL TORO), minimizing uncertainty is instinct.

Third, and most pragmatically: the rest day is tomorrow. Wellens and Großschartner could burn themselves to the ground today and recover lying down tomorrow. From a resource allocation standpoint, this was a day of “free expendables.”

The result: a breakaway stage was turned by UAE into a selection race of Classic-level intensity. With temperatures above 30 degrees and the road surface softening, the day’s perceived difficulty far exceeded its paper specifications.

Netcompany INEOS Joins the Chase, and the Gap Drops Under a Minute

Just over 40 km from the finish, Netcompany INEOS joined the chase.

Their motivation was Egan BERNAL’s GC position. Before the stage, Bernal sat 11th overall (+9’12"), while 10th-placed Mathias VACEK (+7’10") had been dropped in the early chaos of the stage. In other words, as long as they could keep Pidcock and Johannessen from the breakaway in check, Bernal would automatically move up to 10th.

This is a classic calculation from the middle of the GC: unable to challenge for the top 5, but a top-10 overall is a threshold with real meaning for the team, the sponsors, and the rider himself. Paying for an entire chase group to secure that threshold is worth it.

So the chase behind developed a twin-engine: UAE was pressing for Pogačar (and for order), while Netcompany INEOS was chasing for Bernal.

The gap dropped to under a minute on the Côte de la Croix du Pey. The breakaway looked like it was about to be swallowed up.

The Minutes When the Front Group Lost Its Cohesion

The shrinking gap had a direct consequence: the confidence inside the front group collapsed. When you know the peloton is closing fast, and you have two Lidl-Trek riders beside you who might not want to commit fully, the rotation starts to show cracks of “some doing a bit more, some doing a bit less.”

As soon as the front group lost its cohesion, the gap immediately fell from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. Pablo CASTRILLO tried to lift the pace again.

Castrillo’s move deserves a note. He wasn’t the fastest sprinter of the eight, nor the most valuable on GC, but when everyone was watching each other, he was the one who stepped up to pull the rhythm back. This kind of behavior—knowing you’re not the eventual winner yet still willing to do the work first—is actually the norm in breakaways: because for him and Movistar, being caught means today’s effort counts for nothing, while continuing at least offers a chance at a placing.

Lidl-Trek’s Tactical Contradiction

This section deserves to be broken out on its own, because it may have been the invisible deciding factor of the entire race.

Lidl-Trek’s situation at the time was this:

Two riders up front—Quinn SIMMONS and Derek GEE-WEST, both attacking riders capable of winning a stage.
Three riders behind—Mads PEDERSEN (green jersey, extremely strong on slightly uphill sprints), Mattias SKJELMOSE (9th on GC), and Juan AYUSO (5th on GC).

In other words, they had two winning paths simultaneously: let the breakaway go and rely on Simmons or Gee-West for the stage win; or bring the breakaway back and let Pedersen contest the slightly uphill finish—precisely the finish type he excels at, the way he won Stage 4 of this race.

Having two paths sounds great; in reality, it’s a tactical disaster. Because it means the team couldn’t commit fully in the chase group: chase hard, and you’re killing your own two pawns up front; don’t chase, and you’re giving up on a potential second stage win for your green jersey rider.

So they hesitated.

On the road, that hesitation manifested as one team missing from the chase group that should have been the most motivated. And in a pursuit where the gap was only 40 to 60 seconds, having one team absent from the rotation can be the difference in the entire race.

Looking back, that hesitation was crucial.

Mechanical Issue: Lenny MARTINEZ’s Misfortune

There was also an interlude: Lenny MARTINEZ (8th on GC, +4’21") suffered a mechanical issue on the Côte de la Croix du Pey and had to chase back to the peloton on his own.

On a day when the peloton was chasing at full speed, a mechanical issue is the last thing you want—you don’t just have to catch back on, you have to do it while everyone else maintains a high pace. Fortunately, he didn’t lose any GC time in the end (after Stage 9 he remains 8th, +4’21"), but that chase will have taken a toll on his fatigue ledger.

At the same time, Mathias VACEK (10th on GC before the stage) was dropped in the early chaos and ultimately fell out of the top 15 overall. For Lidl-Trek, the loss column for this stage includes not only tactical hesitation, but also a previously valuable top-10 GC position.

9. Race Report (5): The Mont Bessou Decisive Move and the Time-Gap Curve of the Final 20 Kilometers

One Attack, Two Riders Eliminated

24.5 km from the finish, Mont Bessou, Van der Poel attacks.

This climb is only Category 4, short, but steep enough. Van der Poel is the most terrifying rider on exactly this kind of terrain—short bursts of absolute power output, combined with his signature direct attack that wastes almost no time on feints.

With one attack, Lidl-Trek’s Simmons and Gee-West are immediately dropped.

The value of this move goes far beyond “dropping two rivals.” It simultaneously solved the cooperation problem within the leading group.

Recall the previous section: the leading group couldn’t go fast, and the core reason was that Lidl-Trek had two riders up front, and their presence made the other six uneasy—how could you know they weren’t just burning time for Pedersen behind? Van der Poel’s single attack eliminated those two, and the remaining four (Van der Poel, Johannessen, Peacock, and Bodan) had absolutely no conflict of interest in terms of team tactics. Every one of them had to win, and could only win through this group.

The official race report described it this way: once Lidl-Trek had no one up front, the four had no reason left to hold back, and cooperation immediately became smooth. Meanwhile, Simmons and Gee-West dropped back to help the chase group—Lidl-Trek’s dilemma was thus solved for them by Van der Poel with one attack, only the solution worked against them.

Peacock’s Second Crisis

Entering the final 20 kilometers, the four-man leading group was formed. Then Peacock hit his second major trouble of the day: a mechanical issue on the descent.

In a chase with the gap down to just forty or fifty seconds, a mechanical issue usually means elimination. But after being dropped, Peacock caught back up to Van der Poel, Johannessen, and Bodan before entering the final section.

This catch-up was extremely high quality. The three ahead were working flat out to maintain the gap, meaning he wasn’t chasing a relaxed trio but a high-speed rotating paceline. His workload today already included: the whole team moving to the front to control the pace, a probe on the Côte de Naves, a solo bridge from the GC group on the Suc au May, leading over the summit, and then catching back after a mechanical—this is an extraordinary job list.

He ultimately took 3rd place, and it was fully deserved.

The Time-Gap Curve: How Four Riders Held Under a Minute

The chase behind changed hands several times during this stretch. UAE dropped off the front after exhausting Wellens and Großschartner; Netcompany INEOS took over with Tobias FOSS, with Filippo GANNA also in the group. Lidl-Trek, having lost their pawns up front, finally had to chase themselves, with Carlos VERONA stepping up; Vauquelin also contributed, Ion IZAGIRRE appeared at the front a bit later, but the organization came too late.

Here are the official time gaps over the final 15 kilometers—this curve alone is a thesis:

Distance Remaining	Lead Gap	Change per 5 km	Analysis
15 km	55"	—	Chase group rotation complete; theoretically the best moment to close the net
10 km	45"	−10"	Only 2 seconds per kilometer clawed back; rate far below the “catchable” threshold
5 km	40"	−5"	Chase group drained: Simmons completely empty, Gee-West hanging on, Foss already pulled off
2 km	29"	−11" (3 km)	Peloton speeds up for the sprint; looks like acceleration on paper, but it’s just the natural surge of the sprint train
1 km (flamme rouge)	20"	−9" (1 km)	Too late. 20 seconds with 1 km left; mathematically impossible

From 15 km to 5 km, a full 10 kilometers of chasing clawed back only 15 seconds—an average of 1.5 seconds per kilometer. What does this rate mean? It means that if you calculated from the 15 km mark at this efficiency, the chase group would need over 35 kilometers to catch, and they only had 15.

In other words, this chase was already over when 15 kilometers remained, even though no one—including the four riders up front—dared to believe it at the time.

The acceleration in the final 5 kilometers looks dramatic (40 seconds down to 20), but that was the natural byproduct of the peloton preparing for the sprint, not effective chasing. Real chasing requires “sustained, organized, fresh-legged” rotation, and at the 15 km mark, the chase group had none of the three.

Heat was the key: the chase group’s paper horsepower was absolutely sufficient, but freshness was not. This is the most important tactical takeaway of the stage. When everyone has been riding for over three hours in temperatures above 30 degrees, survived 50 kilometers of chaos, and climbed four categorized climbs, the question of “how many watts can you produce” no longer matters—what matters is “how many minutes of output do you have left.”

The Final Kilometer: A Calculated Risk

At the flamme rouge, the gap was 20 seconds. Then came the most textbook, and most counterintuitive, moment of the stage:

Van der Poel took the final kilometer’s lead himself.

In a normal four-man sprint, this is absolutely the wrong thing to do. Leading out the final kilometer means sheltering the other three from the wind, means handing over the best sprint position. On flat roads, this almost guarantees defeat.

But Van der Poel’s judgment was: here, it was actually the safest choice.

The reasoning had two layers. First, this was a slight uphill finish. If the four of them watched each other in the final kilometer and the pace dropped, the 20-second gap could evaporate in an instant—the peloton sprinting at full speed behind could cover the final kilometer much faster than a hesitant group of four. If no one led, all four could lose together.

Second, and more critically: the slight uphill diminished the advantage of sitting on a wheel. On an incline, wind resistance accounts for a smaller share of total resistance, while gravity’s share rises; the energy saved by sitting on someone’s wheel is far less than on flat ground. This meant the “cost of leading” was discounted here—and Van der Poel happens to be exactly the kind of rider who, in a state of deep fatigue, can still sustain extremely high output for 20 to 30 seconds.

So he chose: take the lead himself, keep the group from stalling even as the road rose, then launch at the moment of his choosing.

Johannessen sat on his wheel waiting to pounce, which was the correct play in that position. Peacock and Bodan were also there, but their sprint profiles differed—Peacock had a climber’s explosiveness, while Bodan was a pure climber.

Van der Poel launched, held off Johannessen to take the win, and pounded his chest as he crossed the line.

Six seconds later, Filippo GANNA led the peloton across.

10. Results Analysis: Top 10 Commentary and Full Top 30

Winner’s Time and Average Speed

Mathieu VAN DER POEL, 3 hours 27 minutes 51 seconds, 154.6 km.

To emphasize once more: this time corresponds to the shortened 154.6 km, not the originally scheduled 184.8 km. Using the correct distance, the average speed is approximately 44.7 km/h. On a hilly route with around 3,000 meters of cumulative climbing, four categorized climbs, temperatures above 30 degrees, and partially softening road surfaces, this is a ferocious number—and further confirmation of the logic that “shorter stages mean higher intensity.”

Top Four: The Uncompromising Quartet

Place	Rider	Time	Notes
1	Mathieu VAN DER POEL	3:27:51	Time bonus 10"
2	Tobias JOHANNESSEN	3:27:51	Time bonus 6"
3	Tom PIDCOCK	3:27:51	Time bonus 4"
4	Alex BAUDIN	3:27:51	—

Van der Poel: Attacking from kilometre 57, delivering the decisive blow on Mont Bessou, then leading out the final kilometre himself and still winning the sprint. This is a scorecard of “the biggest workload of the day, and still taking the win”—no dispute over giving him the most aggressive rider award.

Johannessen: He attacked proactively before Suc au May, one of the first in that 16-rider front group to try to split the race. In the final kilometre he made the right choice—sticking to Van der Poel’s wheel, waiting for him to launch before countering. He lost, but he lost to the strongest man of the day, and he regained his overall placing in the process.

Pidcock: His workload list for the day was absurdly long—moving to the front to control the pace for his team, testing on the Côte de Naves, bridging solo from the GC group at Suc au May and leading over the summit, then chasing back after a mechanical on the descent. In terms of work done divided by result, he probably had the lowest cost-performance ratio of the stage, but the most complete display of willpower.

Baudin: The weakest sprinter of the four, yet he followed all the way through. 4th place is an acceptable haul for him personally and for EF Education-EasyPost, and he also held his position in the climbers’ classification (13 points, 4th).

Places 5 to 10: A Microcosm of the Group Sprint

Place	Rider	Team	Time
5	Filippo GANNA	NETCOMPANY INEOS	3:27:57
6	Mads PEDERSEN	LIDL-TREK	3:27:57
7	Michael MATTHEWS	TEAM JAYCO ALULA	3:27:57
8	Nicolas BREUILLARD	TOTALENERGIES	3:27:57
9	Jordan JEGAT	TOTALENERGIES	3:27:57
10	Sean QUINN	EF EDUCATION - EASYPOST	3:27:57

Ganna 5th, leading the group across the line. That is quite symbolic: he joined attacks early in the day (alongside Van der Poel), was in the chase group later, and still managed to take the front position in the uphill group sprint—considering his size and role, this is a considerable performance.

Pedersen 6th, adding 15 points. He took 25 from the intermediate sprint and 15 at the finish, banking 40 points in a single day. From the perspective of the green jersey battle, this was a perfect day.

Matthews 7th—this kind of uphill finish has always been his cup of tea. Breuillard and Jegat, the two TotalEnergies riders, took 8th and 9th, giving the French home team visibility on a French stage. Quinn 10th—EF placed two riders in the top 10 on this stage (Baudin 4th, Quinn 10th), making it a highly successful day for them.

Why Everyone from 11th Onward Is +6"

Looking at the full results sheet, one thing stands out: from 5th place all the way to 30th, the time is 3:27:57 across the board—that is, +6".

The reason is simple: this is the result of the same group crossing the line together.

The timekeeping rule in cycling is that all riders within the same group (where no significant time gap has opened up) are recorded with the same finish time. Ganna took 5th in the group sprint, while Pogačar crossed in the same group in 11th—six places apart in the standings, but with exactly the same time.

So this table needs to be read on two levels:

• The top 4 are the true stage contenders, the four-rider leading group.
• From 5th onward are “sprint placings within the group,” reflecting who grabbed a good position in the final few hundred metres, not who rode faster.

This is also why Pogačar is 11th, Evenepoel 12th, Del Toro 13th, and Vingegaard 19th—these placings have zero impact on the overall classification; they merely indicate the relative positions of the GC riders within the group. What actually matters is only the real 6-second gap, plus the time bonuses awarded to the top three.

Official Top 30 Results

Rank	Rider	Team	Finish Time	Gap
1	Mathieu VAN DER POEL	ALPECIN-PREMIER TECH	3:27:51	Winner
2	Tobias JOHANNESSEN	UNO-X MOBILITY	3:27:51	Same time
3	Tom PIDCOCK	PINARELLO-Q36.5 PRO CYCLING TEAM	3:27:51	Same time
4	Alex BAUDIN	EF EDUCATION - EASYPOST	3:27:51	Same time
5	Filippo GANNA	NETCOMPANY INEOS CYCLING TEAM	3:27:57	+6"
6	Mads PEDERSEN	LIDL-TREK	3:27:57	+6"
7	Michael MATTHEWS	TEAM JAYCO ALULA	3:27:57	+6"
8	Nicolas BREUILLARD	TOTALENERGIES	3:27:57	+6"
9	Jordan JEGAT	TOTALENERGIES	3:27:57	+6"
10	Sean QUINN	EF EDUCATION - EASYPOST	3:27:57	+6"
11	Tadej POGACAR	UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG	3:27:57	+6"
12	Remco EVENEPOEL	RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE	3:27:57	+6"
13	Isaac DEL TORO ROMERO	UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG	3:27:57	+6"
14	Alex ARANBURU DEVA	COFIDIS	3:27:57	+6"
15	Paul SEIXAS	DECATHLON CMA CGM TEAM	3:27:57	+6"
16	Tiesj BENOOT	DECATHLON CMA CGM TEAM	3:27:57	+6"
17	Ramses DEBRUYNE	ALPECIN-PREMIER TECH	3:27:57	+6"
18	Yannis VOISARD	TUDOR PRO CYCLING TEAM	3:27:57	+6"
19	Jonas VINGEGAARD HANSEN	TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE	3:27:57	+6"
20	Florian LIPOWITZ	RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE	3:27:57	+6"
21	Mattias SKJELMOSE	LIDL-TREK	3:27:57	+6"
22	Ilan VAN WILDER	SOUDAL QUICK-STEP	3:27:57	+6"
23	Clément BRAZ AFONSO	GROUPAMA-FDJ UNITED	3:27:57	+6"
24	Davide PIGANZOLI	TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE	3:27:57	+6"
25	Sepp KUSS	TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE	3:27:57	+6"
26	Richard CARAPAZ	EF EDUCATION - EASYPOST	3:27:57	+6"
27	Juan AYUSO PESQUERA	LIDL-TREK	3:27:57	+6"
28	Marc HIRSCHI	TUDOR PRO CYCLING TEAM	3:27:57	+6"
29	Einer RUBIO REYES	MOVISTAR TEAM	3:27:57	+6"
30	Lars CRAPS	LOTTO INTERMARCHE	3:27:57	+6"

Worth mentioning is 28th place: Marc HIRSCHI. The winner of the 2020 stage in Sarran, Corrèze—the stage that also shared the Suc au May and Croix du Pey climbs—returned to the same roads six years later, this time finishing with the main group.

11. The Four Leader Jerseys and Points Changes

Yellow Jersey: Pogačar Cruises into Rest Day

General Classification after Stage 9 (Cumulative 1420.5 km):

Rank	Rider	Team	Time Gap
1	Tadej POGACAR	UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG	32h17’04"
2	Jonas VINGEGAARD	TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE	+2’42"
3	Isaac DEL TORO	UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG	+3’27"
4	Remco EVENEPOEL	RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE	+3’30"
5	Juan AYUSO	LIDL-TREK	+3’34"
6	Paul SEIXAS	DECATHLON CMA CGM TEAM	+3’55"
7	Florian LIPOWITZ	RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE	+4’00"
8	Lenny MARTINEZ	BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS	+4’21"
9	Mattias SKJELMOSE	LIDL-TREK	+4’57"
10	Egan BERNAL	NETCOMPANY INEOS CYCLING TEAM	+9’12"
11	Tobias JOHANNESSEN	UNO-X MOBILITY	+9’30"
12	Sean QUINN	EF EDUCATION - EASYPOST	+9’35"
13	Tom PIDCOCK	PINARELLO-Q36.5 PRO CYCLING TEAM	+9’40"
14	Ilan VAN WILDER	SOUDAL QUICK-STEP	+9’45"
15	Davide PIGANZOLI	TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE	+10’46"

The rankings and time gaps for the top 9 remained completely unchanged, marking the third consecutive stage this has happened. Pogačar heads into the rest day wearing the yellow jersey, with his 2’42" lead over Vingegaard not moving an inch.

All the real changes occurred behind 10th place, and every single one can be explained with simple arithmetic:

Bernal moves up to 10th (+9’12"): His time gap didn’t change; it’s just that Mathias VACEK, who was previously in 10th, lost contact during the chaotic front-end action and dropped out of the top 15, so Bernal naturally moved up into that spot. Netcompany INEOS’s decision to join the chase in the final 40 km paid off exactly as planned.

Johannessen moves from 13th to 11th (+9’42" → +9’30", gaining 12 seconds): He crossed the line 6 seconds ahead of the GC group, plus 6 seconds of time bonus for 2nd place, totaling 12 seconds.

Pidcock moves from 15th to 13th (+9’50" → +9’40", gaining 10 seconds): 6 seconds ahead at the line, plus 4 seconds of time bonus for 3rd place, totaling 10 seconds.

Piganzoli fills in at 15th (+10’46").

These calculations tell one story: on a day when the overall classification was completely static, the time bonuses (10" for the winner, 6" for 2nd, 4" for 3rd) and that 6-second real gap were still enough to reshuffle the middle of the GC. For mid-pack riders, a breakaway day isn’t just about chasing the stage win—it’s also an opportunity to accumulate positions one second at a time.

Green Jersey: Pedersen Doubles and Redoubles His Lead in a Single Day

Rank	Rider	After Stage 8	After Stage 9	Change
1	Mads PEDERSEN	228	268	+40
2	Biniam GIRMAY	203	223	+20
3	Tim MERLIER	213	213	0
4	Jasper PHILIPSEN	175	191	+16
5	Max KANTER	172	172	0
6	Olav KOOIJ	110	110	0
7	Soren WÆRENSKJOLD	89	89	0
8	Tadej POGACAR	75	87	+12
9	TURGIS	79	79	0
10	Isaac DEL TORO	—	72	New entry

This table tells the whole story:

• Pedersen gained 40 points in one day (25 from the intermediate sprint + 15 for 6th place at the finish), stretching his lead over Merlier from 15 points to a massive 55, and holding a 45-point advantage over new runner-up Girmay.
• Merlier scored zero points all stage, dropping from 2nd to 3rd. For him, this stage wasn’t just about missing points—it was losing all the momentum he had built up over the first week.
• Girmay moves up to 2nd (223 points), thanks to his 2nd place at the intermediate sprint. His ability to keep pace and score points on these hilly stages is a key advantage over pure sprinters.
• Pogačar also picked up 12 points (11th across the line in the peloton). It holds no practical significance for his green jersey standing, but it perfectly illustrates that he won’t casually give up points in any situation.

Polka Dot Jersey: Order Unchanged

The mountains classification standings have been in exactly the same order after Stages 7, 8, and 9:

Rank	Rider	Points
1	Tadej POGACAR	28
2	Jonas VINGEGAARD	19
3	Lenny MARTINEZ	16
4	Alex BAUDIN	13
5	Valentin PARET-PEINTRE	12
5	Paul SEIXAS	12 (tied after Stage 9)
7	Isaac DEL TORO	10
7	Florian LIPOWITZ	10
9	PRODHOMME	9
10	Tom PIDCOCK	7

Since Pogačar is also the GC leader, the polka dot jersey is effectively worn by the second-placed rider. What’s worth noting here is Baudin sitting in 4th with 13 points—his 4th place on this stage, combined with previously accumulated climbing points, keeps him visible on both standings. This is the ideal situation for an attacker from a mid-sized team in a Grand Tour: no need to win, but always in the picture.

White Jersey: Del Toro Holds Steady

Best Young Rider standings after Stage 9:

Rank	Rider	Gap
1	Isaac DEL TORO	—
2	Juan AYUSO	+7"
3	Paul SEIXAS	+28"
4	Lenny MARTINEZ	+54"
5	Davide PIGANZOLI	+7’19"
6	Lennert VAN EETVELT	+7’24"
7	Ramses DEBRUYNE	+9’48"
8	Pablo CASTRILLO	+10’10"
9	Mathias VACEK	+13’31"
10	Kévin VAUQUELIN	+37’30"

The top 4 are packed within 54 seconds, making this the second most intense battle of this Tour (only behind the Green Jersey). Del Toro leads Ayuso by just 7 seconds—meaning any mountain stage, any time bonus, could see the White Jersey change hands.

Incidentally, Van Eetvelt (6th) and Castrillo (8th) on the White Jersey standings were both members of the day’s eight-man breakaway; they couldn’t follow the decisive move on Mont Bessou, but today’s effort at least left its mark on the standings.

In the Team Classification, Lidl-Trek continues to lead. The Most Combative Award went to Van der Poel—after Baptiste VEISTROFFER (S7) and Liam SLOCK (S8), both of Lotto Intermarché, this is the first time the award has gone to a stage winner, and no one can argue with that.

12. Team Tactical Review: Who Got It Right, Who Got It Wrong

Alpecin-Premier Tech: A Redemption Arriving Late

This team entered Stage 9 having endured a miserable first week. Philipsen missed out in all three sprints, Van der Poel’s form hadn’t returned, and the entire week had produced no significant result.

But they had one thing to protect: having won at least one stage in every Tour de France since their debut in 2021. If that streak were broken, it would be a tangible blow to the team’s sponsorship narrative.

Van der Poel’s approach was to treat the whole day like a Classic: joining attacks early, attacking again at kilometer 57, bridging to the front group on the Suc au May, deciding the race on Mont Bessou, and leading out the final kilometer himself. This wasn’t a strategy of saving energy and waiting for an opportunity, but rather applying relentless high-intensity pressure until the race was shaped into what he wanted.

Looking at the result, it was a perfect day: stage win, Most Combative Award, streak extended, team morale restored. Incidentally, his teammate Ramses DEBRUYNE finished 17th, also a solid position from the peloton.

Uno-X Mobility: A Double Harvest

The Norwegian team’s first week was an emotional rollercoaster. Torstein TRÆEN wore the Yellow Jersey, then crashed while defending it on Stage 6, and couldn’t even start Stage 7. The biggest visibility a mid-tier team could hope for was over in an instant.

On Stage 9, they got two things back: a runner-up finish on the stage, and Johannessen moving up to 11th overall.

Johannessen’s situation that day was actually quite delicate. He was 9’42" down on GC—a position that sits right in the “UAE will watch you, but won’t chase you to death” zone. Too far up, and a breakaway would be hunted down; too far back, and no one would care if you escaped, but you wouldn’t gain much yourself either. He was exactly in the slot with maximum freedom, and he used that freedom to the fullest: attacking proactively from the front group, following the decisive move on Mont Bessou, and making the right tactical choice in the final kilometer.

Pinarello-Q36.5: A Worthwhile Gamble

This team moved up en masse on the Côte de Naves, letting Peacock start testing the waters. Later, Peacock bridged solo from the GC group, led over the summit of the Suc au May, fought back after a mechanical, took 3rd place, and moved up to 13th overall.

The essence of the gamble was: abandoning GC in exchange for attacking freedom every day. After Peacock lost significant time to Pogačar on Stage 6, his GC ambitions for this Tour were theoretically over. But that actually turned him into a “dangerous man who can be let go”—he has front-group climbing ability in a Grand Tour, yet doesn’t threaten the top 10 on GC.

For a team in need of visibility, this trade-off is very worthwhile.

Lidl-Trek: Hitting Many Birds with One Stone, but Also Taking Many Wounds

Lidl-Trek’s operations on this stage will serve as a great tactical lesson—for better and for worse.

What they got right:

• The entire team escorted Pedersen to the intermediate sprint at the start, taking the full 25 points. This was committing resources to the most certain return, executed perfectly.
• After the escort mission was complete, Gee-West immediately switched to an attacking role, becoming the instigator who actually created the gap.
• Simmons also made it into the front group, giving them two pawns in the breakaway.
• Pedersen added another 15 points with 6th place at the finish.
• The Team Classification lead remains intact.

The cost:

• With Simmons and Gee-West up front, and Pedersen, Skjelmose, and Ayuso behind, this “win-win either way” setup became a reason not to commit fully in the chase group. They hesitated, and in a chase where the gap was only 40 to 60 seconds, hesitation is fatal.
• After Van der Poel’s strike on Mont Bessou eliminated both pawns, Lidl-Trek went from “two paths” to “one path,” forced to chase alone, with Carlos VERONA stepping up. But by then it was too late.
• Even more painful was Mathias VACEK getting dropped and falling out of the top 15 on GC, costing the team a valuable top-10 position.

In a single day: a big haul in the Green Jersey competition, a complete loss on the stage, and a lost spot on GC. It’s a very “split” report card, and the root cause lies in the cracks that appear in resource and willpower allocation when a team pursues too many objectives at once.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG: The Cost and Reward of Pressure

UAE had Wellens and Großschartner putting in long turns at the front, with Adam Yates also in the chase. They didn’t win in the end, and Pogačar didn’t contest the stage.

So was the day worth it? Working backwards from the result, the answer is “largely yes”:

• The breakaway’s maximum gap was held to just 1’25", leaving the GC structure completely unaffected.
• Both the Yellow and White Jerseys were safely defended.
• The expendable riders (Wellens, Großschartner) were burned out the day before a rest day and will recover tomorrow—no wasted resources.

The only point up for debate: since they were pressing so hard, why didn’t they actually close it down and go for the win themselves? Looking at the time gap curve, UAE pulled off the front after exhausting their two key domestiques, handing the baton to Netcompany INEOS. The timing of that choice suggests they judged the “expected value of closing the gap” to be lower than the “cost of continuing to burn teammates.” The day before a rest day, there’s no need to gamble the entire team’s recovery on a stage win—that’s a very rational decision.

Netcompany INEOS: Chasing for a 10th Place

Netcompany INEOS joined the chase just over 40 kilometers from the finish, with Tobias FOSS taking over the pace-making after UAE dropped back, while Filippo GANNA was also in the group.

Their calculation was clear: Bernal needed to move into the top 10 overall. And since Vacek had dropped back, this goal would actually be achieved without chasing — but no one on the road could be certain Vacek wouldn’t fight back, so the chase was a necessary insurance policy.

The byproduct was Ganna’s 5th place on the stage. For a traditional powerhouse in a rebuilding phase, “Bernal in the top 10 + Ganna 5th in the group + the whole team on screen for half an hour” is a report card that can be handed in.

EF Education-EasyPost, TotalEnergies and Other Mid-Sized Teams

EF Education-EasyPost was one of the hidden winners of the stage: Powless 4th, Quinn 10th, taking two spots in the top 10; Carapaz was also involved in the early attacks. In terms of resource scale, this was a very efficient day.

TotalEnergies secured two positions with Breuillard 8th and Jegat 9th, and Jegat was even a member of that 10-rider leading group. The French team’s need for visibility on a French stage was satisfied that day.

Movistar’s Castrillo made the group of eight and actively took pulls when the cooperation broke down; although he ultimately didn’t follow on Mont Bessou, his position in the white jersey standings (8th) and the day-long exposure were tangible gains.

Groupama-FDJ United’s Braz Afonso also made the 16-rider front group, finishing 23rd.

Soudal Quick-Step took the KOM points at the Côte de Naves through Valentin PARET-PEINTRE, while Van Wilder held 14th overall.

Lotto Intermarché didn’t repeat as the most aggressive team that day, but Lars CRAPS finished 30th, maintaining the team’s presence.

13. Individual Rider Stories: Five Riders, Five Arcs

Van der Poel: A Complete Display of Racing Intelligence

The value of Van der Poel’s victory goes beyond “he is Van der Poel.”

He wasn’t in good form in the opening days, and he later stated that the heat affected his early recovery. That statement is worth chewing on — the damage heat waves inflict on pro cyclists often doesn’t occur during the race itself, but in the post-race recovery window: elevated core temperature, worse sleep quality, decreased appetite, and compromised rehydration and electrolyte replenishment. For a rider whose weapons are “explosiveness + high wattage,” incomplete recovery means the weapons are directly blunted.

By the time they reached Ussel that day, his legs were finally back. And the way he chose to use them was to treat the entire day like a Classic:

1. Early on, he joined Ganna’s attack to test the peloton’s tolerance.
2. He went again at kilometer 57, with the official report describing him as playing the leading role in a series of attacks and counter-attacks.
3. When Gee-West launched, he followed immediately, becoming part of the 10-rider leading group.
4. He connected when Peacock bridged, entering the 8-rider breakaway.
5. One surge on Mont Bessou eliminated Lidl-Trek’s two pawns, and conveniently solved the cooperation problem in the front group.
6. He took the lead himself on the final kilometer, trading the “risk of gifting the win” for “the certainty of preventing a catch.”
7. He launched the sprint and held off Johannessen.

Points 5 and 6 are the core of this victory. Point 5 was a tactical-level attack — he wasn’t just attacking his opponents’ legs, but the structure of their team. Point 6 was an ability to price risk: under normal circumstances, leading out on the final kilometer is suicide, but he accurately judged how the false flat changed the value of sitting on a wheel, and made a counter-intuitive yet correct choice.

This was his 3rd career Tour de France stage win and his first of this edition. He pounded his chest as he crossed the line — for a rider who has already won nearly every title available, that gesture showed how real the suffering of this past week had been.

Johannessen: Back Where He Belongs

Johannessen’s performance on this stage was essentially a “declaration that his form is back.”

He attacked proactively with Simmons before Suc au May, among the first in the front group to try to split the race. He then followed Van der Poel’s surge on Mont Bessou — a surge that eliminated two Lidl-Trek riders, and being able to follow meant his anaerobic and climbing capacities were both at a high level that day. On the final kilometer, he did the most correct thing in that position: didn’t fight for the front, sat on wheels and waited to launch.

Losing to Van der Poel is no disgrace. And by taking back 12 seconds, moving from 13th to 11th overall, it’s a very tangible gain for a budget-limited team like Uno-X Mobility.

Peacock: Bouncing Back from the Pyrenees Low

Peacock lost a huge amount of time to Pogačar on Stage 6, entering Stage 9 with a deficit of nearly 10 minutes. In the world of GC, that is a complete failure.

But one of the most precious abilities of a professional rider is converting failure into something else. Being 10 minutes down transformed him from “a rival who must be marked” into “an attacker who can be let go,” and he immediately used that identity to the fullest:

• On the Côte de Naves, the team moved up en masse to start probing.
• On Suc au May, he bridged solo from Pogačar’s group — one of the most critical moves of the entire day. He chose to close the gap on the steep section, maximizing the advantage of his power-to-weight ratio, while conveniently dragging Gee-West and Van Eetvelt up with him.
• He led over the summit of Suc au May.
• He followed the attack on Mont Bessou.
• A mechanical on the descent, dropped, then caught back a fully rotating trio before the final section.
• 3rd on the stage, moving up to 13th overall.

To do all of that in a single day and still stand on the podium is a display of physical and mental strength far more convincing than a 3rd place itself.

Powless: Turning “Aggression” into an Asset

Alex Powless has followed an aggressive line throughout this Tour. Before Stage 9, he already had visibility on the KOM standings; after Stage 9, he sits 4th in the mountains classification with 13 points.

He was the least sprint-oriented rider in the 8-rider breakaway, and he knew he couldn’t beat Van der Poel and Johannessen in the final few hundred meters. But he still followed to the end — because for a rider positioned as an “attacking climber,” 4th place + KOM points + a full day of television exposure is the output of his job.

There are many such riders in Grand Tours: their value isn’t on the podium, but in “consistently being where things happen.” Powless has done that very well this edition.

Merlier: From Back-to-Back Wins to Being Dropped by the Heat

This last story is the shortest and the cruelest.

On Stages 7 and 8, Merlier won back-to-back, banking 79 points across the two days and cutting Pedersen’s green jersey lead to just 15 points. Anyone looking at the standings before Stage 9 would have thought the green jersey battle was about to enter its decisive phase.

Then, less than twenty minutes into Stage 9, he failed to score at the intermediate sprint on the false flat at Beynat, and began to lose contact; by the Côte de Naves, he was already far behind. Zero points for the entire stage.

This wasn’t a form issue; it was a weather issue. In temperatures above 30 degrees, with the road surface softening and the peloton driving full gas from kilometer 14, a larger pure sprinter faces the greatest heat-dissipation pressure. He went from challenger in the green jersey battle to 3rd place, 55 points behind, in a single day.

The three-week length of a Grand Tour is designed to test “how many different kinds of suffering you can endure.” Stage 9 tested the heat, and Merlier failed that question.

14. Malemort and Ussel: A Tale of Two Cities in Corrèze

The following content is compiled from the race’s city archives and constitutes background information about the cities rather than race facts.

Start: Malemort

The race city archive notes that Malemort is a fairly young administrative entity—it was only formed in 2016 through the merger of several communes, located in the Corrèze department, with a population of around 8,000.

The most interesting entry in the archive is the local rugby tradition. The Malemort area is a stronghold of French rugby, and nearby CA Brive won the European Cup in 1997—for an inland region with a modest population, that is a remarkable sporting achievement and speaks to the depth of sporting culture in the area.

The city archive also records that the 2012 Tour de France started in this area, linked to a victory by Cavendish. This is also mentioned in passing, in the same archival style.

For Taiwanese cycling fans, a city like Malemort is actually easy to understand: it is not a tourist destination, has no postcard-worthy sights, but it has a team, residents who treat sport as a way of life, and every few years, the world’s biggest bike race sets off from here once. That is what the Tour de France truly does—putting the small, unnoticed places of inland France on global television screens, one by one.

Finish: Ussel

Ussel is also located in the Corrèze department, with a population of around 9,000. The race city archive records that it is the sixth city in Corrèze to host the Tour de France.

Ussel’s connection to cycling runs deep. The city archive records that it was once the finish of the Paris–Corrèze race, and notes that Nicolas Fritsch won there in 2003.

A city of 9,000 people leaving this many marks in cycling history is not a matter of size, but of the combination of geography and local tradition—it happens to sit at a nodal point of the Massif Central road network, surrounded by enough hilly routes worthy of racing, while the local community has long been willing to invest resources in hosting events.

Why “intra-department” Stages Have a Special Flavour

Stage 9 starts in one city of Corrèze and ends in another city of the same department, winding through 154.6 km of hills in between. Such a stage holds a special place in the Tour: it carries no geographical mission of “moving the race from A to B”; it exists purely to showcase the terrain and culture of a region.

In other words, besides the riders, the protagonist of this stage is Corrèze itself. And the answer it delivered—four categorized climbs, broken hills, a slightly uphill finish, and a breakaway battle that only took shape after more than 50 km—proves that this region fully deserves the Tour de France stage.

15. Impact on the Following Stages

Rest Day: 13 July

After Stage 9, this year’s Tour enters its first rest day (13 July).

A rest day in a Grand Tour is never about “doing nothing.” The standard routine is usually: travel/transfers, an easy 60–90 minute spin to keep the legs turning, massage and treatment, media day, and most importantly—paying off as much of the accumulated fatigue debt from week one as possible.

This year, the rest day carries an extra layer of meaning: recovery from the heatwave. Van der Poel himself mentioned that the high temperatures affected his early recovery. For the whole peloton, this day is not just rest, but also a chance to “reset core temperature and fluid balance.” Whoever recovers best on the rest day will have an advantage in the first few stages of week two.

Stage 10: 14 July, Bastille Day, Aurillac → Le Lioran

After the rest day, Stage 10 takes place on 14 July, France’s National Day, on the route Aurillac → Le Lioran, officially entering the Massif Central.

The drama of this scheduling needs no explanation: Bastille Day + Massif Central + a peloton fresh off a rest day is ASO’s favourite combination. French riders will have their attacking instincts pushed to the maximum on this day, while GC riders often show the biggest variance on the first climbing day after a rest day—some suddenly feel great, while others discover they “rested too much” and their legs feel heavy.

Will the GC Battle Resume?

Looking at the overall standings after Stage 9, the structure of the top 9 has remained unchanged for three consecutive stages:

• Pogačar leads Vingegaard by 2 minutes 42 seconds.
• Riders 3 to 9 are packed between 3 minutes 27 seconds and 4 minutes 57 seconds, separated by just one and a half minutes.

This structure means two things. First, Pogačar’s lead is not yet secure—2 minutes 42 seconds is not a safe margin in the Massif Central and the subsequent high-mountain stages. Second, the battle among riders 3 to 9 is the focus of week two, because these seven riders are separated by only 90 seconds, and any hard climbing day could completely reshuffle that order.

Also worth noting is UAE’s dual pressure: they must protect both the yellow jersey (Pogačar) and the white jersey (Del Toro), and Del Toro leads Ayuso by only 7 seconds. With Ayuso also sitting 5th overall, every tactical choice UAE makes in the mountain stages will be scrutinised under a magnifying glass.

The Green Jersey Picture Has Changed

Before Stage 9, the green jersey was a back-and-forth battle; after Stage 9, Pedersen leads second-placed Gilmé by 45 points and Merlier by 55 points, with 268 points.

But this war is not over. The reason: a large share of Pedersen’s points come from “non-pure-sprint stages”—he can take maximum points in intermediate sprints on hilly stages and grab placings on slightly uphill finishes; that is his structural advantage. Pure sprinters like Merlier and Philipsen, by contrast, can only score on flat sprint stages.

In other words, the upcoming race route decides everything: if weeks two and three still include enough pure flat sprint stages, Merlier still has a chance; if the route is dominated by mountains and hills, Pedersen’s lead will only grow. What Stage 9 truly changed was turning a “back-and-forth battle” into “Pedersen’s home turf advantage.”

16. A Taiwanese Fan’s Viewing Perspective: Short Hills, Heat, and Slightly Uphill Sprints

1. Relentless Short Hills: The Real Challenge Is Never Finding a Rhythm

The most valuable lesson Taiwanese cyclists can take away from Stage 9 is the terrain challenge of the Massif Central: those relentless, short, punchy hills where you can never find a rhythm.

Taiwanese cyclists are very familiar with long climbs, after all, we have Wuling. But what truly breaks most riders isn’t the long climb you can pace yourself on, but rather the continuous, short, undulating terrain that prevents you from establishing any rhythm. Several well-known routes here share this character:

• The early section of the Wuling approach from the west: From Puli to Wushe, the road comes in sections, with constantly changing gradients and descents that sap your momentum. Many riders burn their legs here, only to realize they have nothing left when the real long climb begins.
• The Northern Cross-Island Highway: Climbing from Sanmin and Fuxing, it’s the same “up and down, up and down” pattern—significant accumulated elevation but few long stretches where you can settle into a steady pace.
• The consecutive climbs of Fengguizui: Short, steep, and full of switchbacks, requiring you to re-accelerate after every corner.
• Wuzhi Mountain and Qingtiangang in the Taipei area: Classic punchy terrain that tests not your VO2 max, but your ability to repeatedly recover from anaerobic efforts.
• Along the Central Cross-Island Highway: Long distances punctuated by constant ups and downs, very similar in character to the Limousin hills.

The common challenge on these routes is: you cannot ride them at a single power output.

The approach professional riders take in the Massif Central can be directly applied:

First, accept that power will fluctuate, but control the “upper limit” of that fluctuation. Maintaining a steady power output on punchy terrain is impossible; short, steep climbs will inevitably spike your numbers. What you should actually do is set an “upper ceiling”—for example, “today, no short climb exceeds 120% of FTP; if it does, I’d rather lose the wheel than chase.” Most people blow up because they attack every small hill at 150%, accumulating dozens of anaerobic overdrafts over the course of a day.

Second, make recovery an active action. After the crest of each short climb, don’t immediately stop pedaling and coast. Instead, keep spinning lightly to maintain cadence. This sounds counterintuitive, but keeping the legs turning helps clear metabolic waste and allows your heart rate to come down more smoothly, getting you into a recovery state faster than stopping pedaling altogether.

Third, accelerate before the crest, not after. This is a classic bunch-riding technique that’s especially effective on punchy terrain. Most riders reach the top gasping and ease off immediately after. If you put in a little extra effort just before the summit, you can use gravity to carry you onto the wheel of the rider ahead, saving far more energy than the extra bit you spent.

Fourth, manage your rhythm with your gears. On punchy terrain, you’ll shift gears several times more often than on a long climb. Develop the habit of “shifting down before the climb begins,” not waiting until you can’t turn the pedals anymore—shifting under load is hard on the drivetrain and costs you an extra anaerobic effort.

2. Riding in the Heat: The Most Practical Lesson from This Stage

Stage 9 saw temperatures exceed 30°C, with pros drinking constantly and using ice packs to cool down, while a sprinter of Merlier’s caliber was eliminated by the heat. For anyone riding in Taiwan in July and August, this is the most directly relevant lesson.

Let’s be clear first: Taiwan’s hot and humid environment places a greater physiological burden on the body than the dry heat of central France. The reason is that the body’s primary cooling mechanism is sweat evaporation, and evaporation efficiency depends on the relative humidity of the air. Taiwan’s summer humidity routinely exceeds 70%, meaning sweat just sits on the skin, unable to run off or evaporate—effectively halving your cooling system. The same 32°C feels far worse to ride in Taiwan than in a dry region.

The following are general sports-physiology recommendations, not based on any specific research data:

Hydration strategy:

• Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. Thirst is a lagging indicator; by the time you feel it, you’re already somewhat dehydrated. Developing a habit of drinking at fixed intervals (e.g., a sip every 10 to 15 minutes) is far more reliable than drinking based on feel.
• For long rides in high heat, you need electrolytes, not just plain water. Heavy sweating also depletes sodium; replacing fluids with pure water alone can lead to an electrolyte imbalance. Commercial electrolyte tablets or sports drinks work fine—the key is that they contain sodium.
• Carry two bottles: one to drink, one to pour over yourself. This is standard practice in the pro peloton and applies perfectly to recreational riding.

Cooling strategy:

• Pour water on your head, neck, and forearms. These three areas offer the highest cooling benefit: the head dissipates a lot of heat, the neck has major blood vessels passing through, and the forearms have a high surface-area-to-volume ratio.
• Ice packs on the neck are standard procedure for pros on hot days. For recreational riding, a cooling towel or a simple ice pack can achieve a similar effect.
• Use convenience stores. The most practical cooling tool for summer riding in Taiwan is actually the air conditioning and ice at convenience stores. Plan your resupply points in advance on long routes, and treat “going in for five minutes of air conditioning” as part of the plan, not a sign of weak willpower.

Time and intensity management:

• Schedule your hardest efforts for the coolest part of the day. The most sensible time for long rides in a Taiwanese summer is early morning. When ASO delayed the start by 30 minutes for this stage, they were essentially applying the same logic.
• Your heart rate will be higher at the same power output in the heat—this is a normal physiological response (cardiovascular drift). If you’re used to training by heart rate, accept that your zones will shift in summer; if you have a power meter, power should be your primary reference on hot days.
• Acknowledge that performance drops on hot days; don’t stubbornly chase a PB. Merlier’s fate in this stage is the perfect reminder: even professional athletes can be beaten by the weather, so there’s no reason for recreational riders to fight the temperature head-on.

Recovery:

• Van der Poel mentioned the heat affected his recovery in the early part of the race—this applies equally to everyday riders. After a hot-day ride, recovery should take priority over the next workout. Lowering your core temperature (showering, staying in an air-conditioned room), replenishing fluids and electrolytes, and ensuring adequate sleep are more important than rushing to the next training session.

3. Pacing and Cooperation Among the Breakaway

The four-rider lead group in this stage held off the chase by less than a minute, relying on the quality of their cooperation rather than sheer horsepower. This lesson is highly applicable to Taiwanese group rides and long-distance challenge events.

The first principle of cooperation is “the length of each pull must match the weakest rider.” The key turning point in this stage was when Van der Poel dropped the two Lidl-Trek riders, leaving the remaining four with perfectly aligned interests, and cooperation immediately became smooth. Conversely, as long as someone in the group has different goals (or a significant gap in fitness), the efficiency of through-and-off rotation plummets.

The practical parallel in Taiwan: if a group rides the Northern or Central Cross-Island Highway and some are there just to finish while others want to set a PB, forcing everyone into the same formation usually leaves both sides unhappy. Rather than that, split into groups from the start—that’s far better than wearing each other down on the road.

The second principle is “short pulls, smooth exchanges.” In high heat or high fatigue, long pulls are a disaster. Rather than one person pulling for three minutes and then dying, it’s better for everyone to pull for 30 seconds but be able to sustain it for two hours. The failure of the chase group in this stage was largely because each key rider (Wellens, Großschartner, Foss, Simmons, Gee-West) was emptied out, and once they dropped off, they could never come back.

Third, note “don’t rotate on the climbs.” Maintaining formation and rotating on climbs is almost pointless (speed is low, wind resistance is minimal, and you save almost nothing sitting on a wheel), and it forces weaker riders to overextend. A more sensible approach on punchy terrain is “ride your own pace on the climbs, regroup at the top.”

4. Micro-Uphill Sprints: A Practical Lesson in Gears and Rhythm

A micro-uphill finish is a common ending type that Taiwanese riders frequently encounter—the final stretch of many local criteriums and climbing races, as well as scenarios like the “final gradual climb to the parking lot” at Fengguizui, all fall into this same category.

Gear Selection: The most common mistake in micro-uphill sprints is gearing too heavy. On flat roads, you can grind a big gear with the large chainring, but on an incline, speed drops quickly and momentum is low—a heavy gear will leave you bogged down within five seconds. The sensible approach is to choose a gear “slightly lighter than your gut instinct,” start with a higher cadence, and shift up one gear mid-sprint if the situation allows.

Timing the Jump: The launch point for a micro-uphill should be earlier than on flat ground. The reason is exactly the logic Van der Poel applied in this stage: the incline diminishes the advantage of sitting on someone’s wheel, so the penalty for “going early” shrinks, while the risk of “waiting too long” grows. If you’re the rider in the group with stronger climbing ability but average sprint explosiveness, a micro-uphill finish is the terrain where you should launch first.

Body Position: Micro-uphill sprints usually suit standing and stomping on the pedals, but be careful not to let your upper body sway too much side to side—energy lost to swaying doesn’t translate into forward motion. Hands can be on the drops or the top of the brake hoods; the key is a stable core so power transfers efficiently to the pedals.

Breathing and Rhythm: This is the most overlooked element. During an uphill sprint, the change in posture and the surge in intensity easily disrupt your breathing. In practice, take two to three deep breaths before launching, then maintain a fixed breathing rhythm during the sprint (e.g., one inhale every two pedal strokes)—this can noticeably extend how long you sustain high-output effort.

17. Race-Watching Summary

Stage 9 brought the first week of this year’s Tour de France to a very complete close.

It had the reality of extreme weather: a red heat warning, 30 kilometers cut, a 30-minute delayed start, temperatures above 30 degrees, and softening road surfaces. It had tactical complexity: a breakaway that took over 50 kilometers to form, a team with two winning paths that hesitated because of it, and an attack that reshaped the front group’s structure. It had individual arcs: a world-class all-rounder who had struggled all week finally found his legs, a Briton who hit rock bottom in the Pyrenees climbed back onto the podium, and a two-stage-winning sprinter eliminated by the weather.

And the most fascinating part was the time-gap curve. From 55 seconds at 15 kilometers to go, to 45 seconds at 10 kilometers, 40 seconds at 5 kilometers, 29 seconds at 2 kilometers, and 20 seconds at the red flag—four riders who had already spent three and a half hours in the heat held off the entire chasing pack by just 6 seconds, thanks to one correct attack, one counterintuitive decision to take a pull, and four perfectly aligned motivations.

The most compelling thing about bike racing has never been who produces the most watts, but who did the right thing at the right time. Van der Poel in this stage embodied exactly that.

Stage 10, July 14, Bastille Day, from Aurillac to Le Lioran, in the Massif Central. A rest day, then the GC battle resumes.

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