Stage 9

The road

At the start

Fourteen sectors of white road

The Tour becomes a Classic for a day: 200 kilometres out of Troyes and back, with fourteen sectors of chemins blancs in the second half. Pogačar leads Evenepoel by 33 seconds, Vingegaard by 1:15, Roglič by 1:36, and Mads Pedersen did not start. 'It's not going to be decisive,' says Evenepoel, 'but you can lose the Tour if you crash or puncture at the wrong time.' Van der Poel, Van Aert and Pidcock came for this one.

How it was won

1. 1151 km to go

   A 12-man break on the gravel

   Twelve strong men — Pidcock, Stuyven, Healy, Gee, Turgis among them — force clear before the fourteen dusty gravel sectors that will define the day into Troyes.

2. 278 km to go

   Vingegaard punctures

   Disaster for Visma as Vingegaard flats and grabs Tratnik's too-small bike; UAE pounce on the front, and only Van Aert's calm pacing rescues the Dane back to the yellow-jersey group.

3. 346 km to go

   Pogačar rips the gravel

   Pogačar attacks sector after sector, but Jorgenson and Vingegaard refuse to let him go, marking every dig while Evenepoel and Roglič are repeatedly distanced and clawed back.

4. 417 km to go

   Stuyven's late solo

   Jasper Stuyven slides through the final gravel sector and commits to a lone effort, his ten-second lead shrinking as the break behind him starts to attack itself.

5. 5At the line

   Turgis takes the gravel sprint

   Stuyven is caught under the flamme rouge and Anthony Turgis fires past Pidcock and Gee for an emotional first WorldTour win on one of the Tour's wildest days.

The result