Tour de France 2025 Stage 9

July 13, 2025 The second Sunday of the race begins in Chinon in La Loire Valley, home of some famous Cabernet Franc, and heads East to Châteauroux, unofficially known as Cavendish City. Mark Cavendish, the Manx Missile, won the first of his record 35 Tour de France stage wins there in 2008 and added more in 2011 and 2021. There is almost nothing on the course to challenge the riders other than the 174KM distance. Even the final 5KM are straightforward with only three corners, the last of which comes with 1.4KM to go and leads the riders on to the Avenue de la Châtre just outside of the city center. While there is very little elevation on the route, the weather could be the main factor of the day. Temperatures reached 31C (88F) and the wind was blowing from the South West which threatened cross-tail winds all day. At the start, Jonas Rickaert and Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck went on the attack with the intermediate sprint in mind for Green Jersey points at 24KM of racing. There was no reaction from anyone else in the bunch and the pair went away easily. By the time van der Poel took the maximum points at the intermediate sprint, their lead was 3 minutes 40 seconds. Lidl-Trek led out Jonathan Milan who took the sprint in the peloton. When the bunch finally got organized for the chase, the gap was out to 4 minutes. Before the feed zone at 132KM to go, a touch of wheels in the middle of the bunch took down Ion Izagirre of Cofidis, Søren Wærenskjold of Uno-X Mobility, Sam Watson of Ineos, and a few Picnic-PostNL riders. Wærenskjold was visibly in pain and very disappointed as he remounted. With 125KM to go on the approach to the town of Châtellerault, the gap was out to 5 minutes 30 seconds and Lidl-Trek were forced to commit more riders to the chase. The gap didn't budge over the next 20KM and the first team to flinch and give a hand to Lidl-Trek was Uno-X Mobility. Soudal Quickstep was next, putting Max Schachmann into the chase. With 75KM to go, teams started to wake up to the threat of wind and started to push to the front for positioning which increased the speed and brought the gap down. With 72KM to go, a group of around 25 riders were split off the back including most of the Picnic-PostNL team including their GC leader Oscar Onley. The bunch settled down which allowed Onley back in with 67KM to go but it was warning to stay focused. Jayco AlUla and Israel-Premier Tech started riding for Dylan Groenewegen and Pascal Ackermann and the gap started to melt, down to 3 minutes 15 seconds with 57KM to go just outside of the town of Mézières-en-Brenne. The stress of the bunch kept the speed high and with 30KM to go, the gap was down to 1 minute 15 seconds. Van der Poel and Rickaert's lead got as low as 40 seconds with 25KM to go but the peloton calmed down and, with 15KM to go, the gap had doubled to 1 minute 20 seconds. Bahrain Victorious, Lidl-Trek, and Tudor Pro Cycling had to commit all of their resources. Uno-X Mobility also came up and had the gap at 30 seconds with 6KM to go as Rickaert pulled off leaving just van der Poel to fend off the peloton. The story book ending for Alpecin-Deceuninck was not to be however because van der Poel was caught with 800M to go as the lead outs were at full speed. No team had many numbers left so the sprinters were diving on to any wheel they could find. Danny van Poppel of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe took charge with 400M to go. Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek came off van Poppel's wheel at 200M with Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep opening his sprint at the same time on the other side of van Poppel. Milan and Merlier were side by side with 50M to go but once again, the bike throw for Merlier was the difference and the Belgian got his second stage win. Arnaud De Lie of Lotto seems to be coming into good form and was able to cross the line in third place, his best result so far in the race. There were no changes at the top in the GC but race leader, Tadej Pogačar, lost a crucial teammate when, midway through the stage, João Almeida was forced to abandon the stage due to his injuries from his crash on Stage 7 to the Mûr-de-Bretagne.