It was a good day for France, as Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) was the fastest in a breakaway sprint to win the highly anticipated gravel stage 9 of the Tour de France, and while yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) relentlessly attacked his rivals over the gravel sectors in an exciting battle for the GC, there were no changes to the top places in the overall classification.
Turgis was part of an all-day breakaway of 12 riders that set off inside the first 50km of the nearly 200km stage into Troyes. What was left of the breakaway, by the time they reached, Troyes caught late-race attacker Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) under the flamme rouge and raced a tactical final few hundred metres as they sprinted for the stage win.
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) led the group into the final metres where Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) was the first to open up his sprint.
Turgis and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) were quick to react, but the Frenchman stormed over the line to take his first WorldTour victory, with Pidcock finishing second and leaving Gee to settle for third place on the day.
"It's a year since I'm on the Tour. At the start of the Tour, I always saw the cameras for the wins on different riders and always the big favourites. I have always believed that if I go to race, I go to try and win," Turgis said in an emotional post-race interview.
"I've never won on the WorldTour. But now, to win on the WorldTour at the Tour de France? It's incredible. It's not any stage; it's one of the key stages. Stages like this are incredible."
Of the original 12-rider breakaway, only seven succeeded to the finish line: Turgis, Pidcock, Gee and Healy, along with Stuyven, Alex Aranburu and Javier Romo (both Movistar), and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan).
As the breakaway showed signs of fatigue in the final kilometres, Stuyven launched a late-race attack over the final gravel sector, Saint-Parres-aux-Tertres, committing to an all-out solo effort, but the Belgian was caught with one kilometre to go.
"We have had a big day. When I saw this group, I thought we could go a long way on this stage. There were a lot of big champions," Turgis said.
"I anticipated Jasper would have a big attack. I was going to try to follow but not do too much; in the back of my head, I was thinking: Don't do too much and stay calm. If it comes back together, I could win the sprint."
It was a chaotic day for the overall contenders, with multiple searing attacks coming from yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).
However, the top 10 in the general classification saw few changes, with Pogačar maintaining his hold on the yellow jersey.
He is still leading the race by 33 seconds ahead of runner-up Evenepoel, 1:15 over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), and 1:36 over Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).
They all finished in the reduced group that crossed the finish line 1:46 behind the breakaway, despite a near-constant battle in the final 100km of the race and throughout the 14 gravel sectors.
"It was fun riding. I was not expecting that the gravel would be so gravelly. There were a lot of rocks and sand, and it was difficult to ride on. It was quite fun, but I would make that loop the opposite way so that we would have a tailwind to the finish because [the headwind] was not in favour of our attacks today," Pogačar said after the stage.
"I was watching Remco, and he was watching me. We couldn't go together, but it was still a fun day, and tomorrow is finally a rest day. I had great legs. I must say that today was one of the hardest of the Tour and I felt good. I can't wait to start the proper mountains."
How it unfolded
Stage 9 at the Tour de France did not disappoint. The peloton tackled a 199km classics-style race routed across four categorised ascents and 14 gravel roads in Troyes, with most of those sectors positioned within the last half of the stage.
The tragic news of the death of Norwegian cyclist André Drege at the previous day's stage 4 at the Tour of Austria hung over the peloton at the start of the stage. The Norwegian team Uno-X Mobility arrived at the start line five minutes early to pay tribute to Drege.
After a flurry of attacks throughout the first 50km of racing, a breakaway of twelve riders emerged that included Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny), Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), Axel Zingle (Cofidis), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) Alex Aranburu, Javier Romo and Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) and Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies).
The breakaway settled into a fast pace, working well together, but they never gained more than 1:45 on the main field, as the battle for the yellow jersey heated up with 100km for racing to go.
UAE Team Emirates was primarily responsible for setting the quick pace during the hilly first half of the dusty stage, which reduced the group to about 50 riders.
The chaos began when Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) punctured and had to quickly take his teammate Jan Tratnik's bike.
UAE Team Emirates appeared to sense Vingegaard's struggle with an untimely mechanical and put pressure on the front of the group. It initially appeared that Vingegaard was isolated without teammates as he tried to get back up to the yellow-jersey group, but Wout van Aert was quickly at his side to pace him safely back up to his GC rivals.
Tratnik is about two inches shorter than Vingegaard, but the Dane said that the bike fit him well. The former two-time Tour champion opted to remain on his teammate's bike rather than swap back to his own as the race reached the back-to-back gravel sectors.
Vingegaard wasn't the only rider to experience bad luck as Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) needed a bike change, too, and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) also suffered mechanicals.
UAE Team Emirates continued to pull the reduced field into the Polisy à Celles-sur-Ource sector, and Pogačar used the high speeds to launch the first of several searing attacks. However, he sat up when Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Visma-Lease a Bike teammates Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson bridged across.
Evenepoel was the next to make a move with 77km to go on a short climb, but Pogačar and Vingegaard quickly joined him.
During a lull in the field, a touch of wheels caused Alexander Vlasov (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) to crash into the grass ditch on the left-hand side of the road. Although the crash looked severe, he was quickly back on his bike and in the group.
Mathieu van der Poel gives chase
Up front in the breakaway, the riders started to show signs of fatigue after being out front for nearly 100km, and as riders fell off the pace, it was down to just eight: Pidcock, Stuyven, Healy, Gee, Aranburu, Romo, Turgis, and Lutsenko with 50km to go, but they still held over a minute on the field.
Many anticipated that World Champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) would make a mark on this stage, given his success at races like Paris-Roubaix and Strade Bianche.
He jumped just after the Briel-sur-Barse gravel sector, 47km out, and was joined by Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla), David Gaudu (Groupama FDJ), Rui Costa (EF Education-EasyPost), green jersey Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty), and Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X Mobility).
They established a lead of about 45 seconds on the field but never managed to close the gap to the breakaway riders and hovered about a minute off the back.
The closest the chase got to the break was within 45 seconds, and race officials pulled the team cars out of the gap between the gap, as they raced over sectors Ru de Paradis and Fresnoy-Le-Château à Clérey.
But Pidcock, Stuyven, Healy, Gee, Aranburu, Romo, Lutsenko and Turgis pushed on, and as they began racing for the stage win, it seemed less likely that the chase group would make the connection before they reached Troyes.
Pogačar's relentless attacks
Pogačar made his next move on the Fresnoy-Le-Château à Clérey gravel sector, distancing Evenepoel and Vingegaard. He opened a slim gap as he raced onto the tarmac, and Jorgenson was the only rider strong enough to follow.
Moments later, Pogačar hit the Daudes gravel sector and launched another attack, but Jorgenson, with Vingegaard on his wheel, quickly followed again. Neither Vingegaard nor Jorgenson showed any interest in working with the yellow jersey, even if Evenepoel and Roglič were distanced.
Pogačar accelerated a third time over the Montaulin à Rouilly-Saint-Loup sector. While Jorgenson and Vingegaard stuck to his back wheel, again, Evenepoel and Roglič were dropped and left fighting to close a ten-second gap.
Evenepoel managed to reconnect with 17km to go ahead of the last gravel sector, Saint-Parres-aux-Tertres, as the yellow-jersey group came back together with the key GC contenders.
Breakaway succeeds
Up front, Stuyven appeared to be the strongest of the breakaway as they approached the final gravel sector, Saint-Parres-aux-Tertres, and opened a gap forcing his rivals to chase in the final kilometres as he pursued the stage victory.
The Belgian raced onto the Saint-Parres-aux-Tertres, his front wheel sliding out through the first corner, but he held it upright as he committed to opening a solo lead of 10 seconds.
Van der Poel's chase group of seven remained in between the breakaway and the peloton, and even with Matthews’ last-ditch attack, all hopes of a stage win had come to an end.
Pogačar pushed speeds over the Saint-Parres-aux-Tertres at the front of the reduced peloton, and while he put pressure on his GC rivals, the group was back together with 5km to go; they, too, knew they wouldn't be catching the breakaway.
Stuyven committed to an all-out solo effort, but that 10 seconds was slashed with every kilometre as the seven riders behind started attacking one another.
Healy was the first to move inside 2km, followed by Gee as the pair desperately tried to close the gap to Stuyven. Pidcock fired across to Healy and Gee, ultimately pulling the rest of the riders back, and they caught Stuyven under the flamme rouge, before setting up for what was a tactical sprint to the line.
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