For three of the past four days, the Tour de France has largely been on hold, the race as good as on pause and the excitement dulled while the sprinters had their chances, and teams curiously decided against putting men in the breakaway.
Enter stage nine to reinvigorate the drama, the first-ever stage in the modern Tour de France with multiple sectors of chemins blancs – gravel roads. The 199km race in and around Troyes, passing over 14 sectors of loose rock, was won unexpectedly by TotalEnergies’s Frenchman Anthony Turgis, while behind the GC cohort tore shreds off each other, but ultimately all crossed the finish line as one.
