Tim Merlier out-sprinted Jonathan Milan to victory on stage nine of the Tour de France after Mathieu van der Poel almost pulled off an audacious win in Chateauroux.
Van der Poel had rolled off the front of the peloton alongside teammate Jonas Rickaert at the start of the 174km stage from Chinon in what looked like a certain suicide mission, but the Dutchman held off the chasing pack until the final few hundred metres.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck adventure had forced rival teams to burn their lead-out men in a furious chase through crosswinds in the final 30km of the stage, and with the sprint trains thoroughly depleted, the quick men had to fend for themselves at the finale.
Milan, Saturday’s stage winner, had a good position on the barriers, but Merlier went long and the European champion pipped the Italian to the line.
“It was really hard,” said Merlier, who also won stage three into Dunkirk. “Five minutes (to Van der Poel) is a lot, but we tried to chase and also the other teams started to help. The pacing was quite high at the front, but it was hard for all the guys. The bunch was nervous.
“In the end, we just went all in and I'm happy I can win my second stage here.”
There has been debate in recent days about the long-term value of flat sprint stages in the Tour, with the fight for UCI points meaning fewer teams can be tempted into breakaways, but this one certainly delivered some drama.
Chateauroux, this week dubbed “Cavendish City” in honour of Sir Mark, who took the first of his Tour-record 35 career stage victories here in 2008, has only ever known sprints in its history in the race, but Van der Poel did his best to break that streak.
When he and Rickaert went early, it looked like a play purely for the intermediate sprint points, but they rolled through that line early in the day and just kept going, building a lead of more than five minutes.
Even as teams furiously fought for position in the wind behind, the lead still held at 50 seconds with 10 kilometres to go as splits appeared in the peloton.
Rickaert fell back with six kilometres left and it became a straight fight between the powerful but shattered Van der Poel and some disorganised lead-out trains behind.
It would go the peloton's way, but Van der Poel got at least one wish with Rickaert being named the most combative rider of the day.
“We wanted to go for it today because it's his dream to be on the podium of a Tour de France,” Van der Poel said. “It’s hard not to be able to finish it off, but we put up a good show today.”
There was no change at the top of the general classification, with Tadej Pogacar remaining 54 seconds clear of Remco Evenepoel. Jonas Vingegaard is behind Kevin Vauquelin in fourth, one minute 17 seconds off yellow.
However, there was a blow for Pogacar as key lieutenant Joao Almeida abandoned the race as a result of injuries suffered on stage seven.
PA
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