Key events
123km to go: Lidl-Trek are diving the peloton but are the only ones at present. Alpecin-Deceuninck clearly won’t be helping now and Tim Merlier’s team Soudal-Quick-Step are looking after Remco Evenepoel. Lidl-Trek need another team to step up and join in.
127km to go: Adam Blythe has gone for it by saying he thinks Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert will win the stage. He points out that the pair are riding at about 54km/h with a tailwind so the peloton would have to go at about 60km/h to catch them. I haven’t checked Blythe’s maths but you get the point. The gap is now at 5mins 26secs.
Chris has messaged to say:
In a somewhat personal crusade to bring back this dormant Guardian feature:
Name That Breakaway: Van der Poel & Rickaert
A sublime 90’s prog house duo, responsible for a slew of classics on the Platypus imprint and much favoured by Sasha & Digweed back in the day. Who can forget their remix of Orbital’s Chime?
Any other takers for this game?
132km to go: There’s been a crash. Sprinters like Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers), Soren Waerenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) and Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL) are down. All the riders involved are back on their bikes now but Waerenskjold looks in pain and visibly upset.
138km to go: Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert are now 4mins 30secs ahead of the peloton. After the results of the intermediate sprint, where Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) took 13 points, he remains in third place on the sprint classification and Van der Poel remains in fourth. According to my quick maths, nine sprint points seperate them at the moment.
Mark has got in touch from Florida. He has a couple of questions:
In previous years, there were many double-wheeled moto bikes covering the Tour de France. This year I have not seen any. Any idea why? Are they out of fashion now days?
And
Every cyclist seems to wear the same socks – white, mid-calf. What with all the aero testing done now days, I’m surprised there is so little deviation – unless there is a sock rule. What do you know about this?
I’m not sure about the double-wheeled moto bikes, but I do know that there is a sock rule. There is a maximum sock height set by the UCI, so the riders will all be wearing the highest aero socks within the limit. The white socks might be due to the heat, but also the fact that so many are sporting white cycling shoes too.
146km to go: The peloton have reached the intermediate sprint. There’s a group of five riders, including Jonathan Milan and Biniam Girmay, who do a “70% effort” (according to Sean Kelly) sprint for the reamining points.
Results of the intermediate sprint
1. Van der Poel, 20 pts
2. Rickaert, 17 pts
3. Milan, 15 pts
4. Girmay, 13 pts
5. Merlier, 11 pts
6. Turgis, 10 pts
7. Consonni, 9 pts
8. Coquard, 8 pts
9. De Lie, 7 pts
10. Plapp, 6 pts
11. Wright, 5 pts
12. Simmons, 4 pts
13. Valgren, 3 pts
14. Sweeny, 2 pts
15. Berckmoes, 1 pt
148km to go: Van der Poel is first over the line at the intermediate sprint, taking 20 green jersey points, and Rickaert bags 17 points. They’re not sitting up! The duo have continued. They have almost 4mins on the peloton but there is such a long way to go.
151km to go: Sean Kelly on TNT Sports thinks Van der Poel and Rickaert might keep going after the intermediate sprint. It’ll be interesting to see if they do.
Alpecin-Deceuninck just told Jens Voigt, who is out on the moto, that they expect the break to be allowed to go away before the intermediate sprint. They wanted to make the stage a little harder than yesterday.
Here are a couple of images coming in from the road:
156km to go: Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert are 3mins ahead now with 6km to go until the intermediate sprint.
Ineos Grenadiers team radioed their riders to say they think the breakaway will scoop up sprint points and then join back in the peloton.
Simon has emailed in with his thoughts on today’s stage:
Going to be a quiet day – a hopeless breakaway and a slog for the poor domestiques who have to ride on the front of the peloton, keeping the break under control. A thankless task.
No doubt the GC chaps are kicking back, drinking vintage Chinon AOC, which can age for decades and apparently tastes like the ‘depths of a forest after a storm’.
That’s a beautiful description. It sound delicious (I think).
163km to go: The Alpecin-Deceuninck duo in the breakaway have over 2mins on the peloton now. Behind them, Lidl-Trek have upped the pace slightly. The team’s Jonathan Milan is the current green jersey wearer. Van der Poel is ranked fourth in the sprinter classification, so if he takes the 2o points at the intermediate sprint it could push him up a spot, ahead of Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty).
166km: Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty) is receiving medical attention from the Tour doctor. His shoulder took a hit yesterday after coming down on his way into the finish. This morning he told reporters:
I was pulling most of the day and then I had finished my job and the only thing I could really do for the boys was to bring some bottles. I went back to the car, gave some vests, some bottles … And then I was coming back to the peloton, I was à bloc. I looked down to put my bottle in the cage and when I looked up, a guy broke hard just in front of me. I touched his wheel and I couldn’t save it any more and I crashed.
A crash at more than 50 km/h is never fun. My shoulder is pretty banged up, a lot of road rash and bruises … But luckily nothing is broken. From now on I take it day by day. In two days we have a rest day so we’ll see.
We try our best. We’re here to race and of course today I don’t feel 100% sharp but I will give it my best. I came here to help Biniam Girmay win a stage and we won’t quit.
170km: Van der Poel and Rickaert have stretched their gap to 1min 13secs already. Lidl-Trek are blocking on the front of the peloton and don’t seem interested in shutting the breakaway down. The intermediate sprint is early on in the stage, coming up in 21km.
The racing has begun!
172km to go: And we’re off! Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Mathieu van der Poel is straight off and up the road. He’s been joined by team mate Jonas Rickaert.
As a reminder, here’s how the general classification for the yellow jersey looks:
General classification: top 10 after stage eight
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Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) 29hrs 48mins 30secs
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Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick-Step) +54secs
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Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +1min 11secs
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Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1min 17secs
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Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +1min 29secs
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Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1min 34secs
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Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL) +2mins 49secs
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Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +3mins 2secs
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Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +3mins 6secs
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Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +3mins 43secs
Today’s rollout has begun
Stage nine of the Tour de France 2025 is under way. The peloton have rolled out from a Chinon. There’s a 7.6km neutralised section before the racing begins.
Stage nine’s official race briefing comes today from French former pro-cyclist Gilles Maignan:
Stage nine, Chinon to Châteauroux, 174.1km [is] a stage made for sprinters. [There’s] not much in the way of difficulty.
There will be a sprint after 24km, an intermediate sprint that could either launch the race or stall it if sprinters want to go for points. After that, there are no climbs. Not a single climber on this stage.
The only challenge might be the wind. If the wind picks up, that could change things. There will be a lot of direction changes along these 174km. A pure sprinter’s finish, a long straight line, no traps, on wide boulevards.
There are a few turns before entering downtown Châteauroux. If the wind blows, it could play a role. But overall, a classic finish, a mass sprint, likely won by a pure sprinter like Cavendish who claimed his first win in Châteauroux. His very first of 35 Tour de France stage victories.
Here is the route profile of stage nine:
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We’ll undoubtedly be hearing a lot about Cavendish’s Châteauroux legacy today. Let me know if you have any memories of this, his first Tour stage win back in 2008:
Stage nine: Chinon to Châteauroux, 174km
Here’s a look at today’s stage, Sunday 13 July: Chinon to Châteauroux, 174.1km, with William Fotheringham’s preview:
British fans remember Chateauroux for the first of Mark Cavendish’s 35 stage wins in 2008 and his 32nd in 2021. With not a single rated climb en route, this is bound to be a sprint day, and by this point, the pressure will be mounting on the fast men who are yet to win: if Philipsen and Merlier are on form, the finger will be pointing at Biniam Girmay and Dylan Groenewegen.
The preview was written before the Tour, so Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won’t be in the mix today after having to withdaw from the race on stage three.
Preamble
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s Tour de France live blog. It’s another flat stage today for the riders as they make their way from Chinon to Châteauroux over 174.1km of parcours. There’s a low elevation gain of 1,400m, no categorised climbs and an intermediate sprint at 24km in.
Châteauroux, which has been renamed ‘Cavendish City’ temporarily, is a sprinter’s finish. Mark Cavendish won three times in the city and notably took the first of his record 35 wins here in 2008.
So, unsuprisingly, it’s going to be a day for the sprinters. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) is fresh off a victory yesterday – can he repeat it in another bunch sprint? Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quick-Step) was unlucky yesterday, suffering a mechanical close to the finish and having to expend energy trying to get to the front of the pack before a rush for the line. Perhaps today is his day? Or Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) could get his first stage win of this Tour? Oh, and we shouldn’t forget Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike). I’d love to get your thoughts, so please email via the link above.
Before the action starts at 1.10pm CEST (12.10am BST), here’s a refresher of how yesterday played out:
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