Tim Merlier Secures Another Stage Victory in Tour de France; Mathieu van der Poel's Attempts Thwarted

Share this @internewscast.com

Tim Merlier clinched victory in stage nine of the Tour de France at Châteauroux after Mathieu van der Poel’s impressive long-distance breakaway was reeled in before the end.

The overall leaderboard remained unchanged, with Tadej Pogacar holding a 54-second lead over Remco Evenepoel in second place, and Kevin Vauquelin of France in third.

This marked Merlier’s second stage win for Soudal Quick-Step in this Tour, following his earlier win in stage three at Dunkirk.

Merlier was guided to victory by his teammate, Evenepoel.

“It’s incredible, we’re supposed to support him [Evenepoel] but he’s the one helping us,” Merlier remarked.

“I need to make it through the mountains now, I won’t be any use to Remco there, but I want to help him in the other ones,” the 32-year-old said.

In a sunlit journey through the Chinon vineyards, Van der Poel, accompanied by a teammate, opened up an early lead, amassing a five-and-a-half minute advantage on the flat route to Châteauroux.

Nearly made it

Jonas Rickaert won the combativity award for accompanying Van der Poel to within 10km of the line before slumping over his handlebars.

“I’m really happy. That was one of his [Rickaert] dreams, to win the combativity award and that’s why we went,” Van der Poel said.

“In the end, we nearly made it, but we hadn’t expected to get that far,” he said of his 173km breakaway at an average speed of 49.9kph.

As with many exploits, their epic escape was ultimately ended in a near miss.

But with his all-in, full-throttle style Van der Poel grew his Tour de France legend here. Even though he was caught with 700m to go, the plaudits will be both his and Merlier’s.

“It’s hard to not be able to finish it off, but we put on a good show,” the Dutch rider said.

Row of cyclists riding behind a field of sunflowers.

Belgian Tim Wellens, alongside Spanish Marc Soler and Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, all from UAE Team Emirates, were active in stage nine. Source: AAP / Jasper Jacobs / Belga / Sipa USA

As Van der Poel was reeled in, it looked as though Jonathan Milan would win a second consecutive stage, but Merlier got ahead with 30m remaining as Milan finished second, with Arnaud De Lie completing the podium.

Road signs in honour of British cycling great Mark Cavendish had been placed at entry points to Châteauroux — reading Cavendish City — in homage to the now-retired 40-year-old, after he won three stages there in 2008, 2011 and 2021.

Pogacar’s Tour de France defence took a hit on Sunday as his key teammate João Almeida threw in the towel two days after his nasty fall at the Mur de Bretagne, where he fractured a rib.

“It’s a big loss, he was in good shape. He’s our hero. I was suffering today, so I understand how he must have felt. Every respect to him,” the Slovenian said.

Stage 10 should shake up the race with eight classified climbs in the Massif Central on the 14 July French national holiday.

After finishing in the peloton on Sunday, Pogacar was already looking ahead to Monday’s mountainous 165.3km slog.

“Visma have a strong team for tomorrow and I think Jonas [Vingegaard] will be ready,” Pogacar said of his great Danish rival.

“There will be attacks from the main contenders; it’s up and down all day.

“I’m pretty confident in my team though. I’m looking forward to the hard stages.”

The place to watch the 2025 Tour de France — live, free and exclusive — plus the fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is right here on the SBS On Demand Hub.