The harder a race gets, the more likely it seems that Mathieu van der Poel will win it. A look at the incredible figures of stage 9 of the Tour de France certainly plays into that hypothesis, with a shortened 155.5km stage to Ussel being stuffed with 3,300m of elevation gain and raced at an average speed of 44.6kph.
The breakaway took 55km of non-stop attacking to form, with wave after wave of riders heading out of Malemort hoping their move would stick. When a break did finally get away, it was full of elite riders, showing just how difficult it was to even make it into the move.
