Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) denied Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) a weekend sprint double at the Tour de France, coming from behind the Italian to score his own second win of the race on stage 9 to Châteauroux.
The European Champion prevailed at the end of a messy, chaotic, and short-lived sprint, only set up in the final 700 metres after day-long breakaway survivor Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was caught within sight of the line.
Merlier and Milan went head-to-head in the final metres of the 174.1km stage, with Merlier’s aerodynamic advantage perhaps making the difference in the dash for the line. Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) rounded out the podium in third place for his best result of the Tour so far.
"It was really hot but in the bunch it was quite OK all day. They tried for echelons in the last 60km so we had no drinks anymore so I was a bit overheated. It was a quite OK day but really nervous," Merlier said at the finish.
"Five-and-a-half minutes is a lot, so we tried to help. Other teams also started to help. The pace was quite high, and in the front also. Like I said, it was hard for the guys at the front and the guys who were pulling. The bunch was just nervous.
"[Team leader Remco Evenepoel] was really strong. Normally, I aim to help him, but when it's tailwind, he doesn't feel his legs and he can move up easily. All the time when there was a possibility of echelons, me and Bert Van Lerberghe were also there to try to protect each other as much as possible, but thanks to Remco also, of course.
"Finally, me and Bert were together for the first time in the Tour. I was so much more confident with him in front of me. He did a really good job. One moment I thought I was boxed, but I came out and went all-in. I'm happy I can win my second stage here this year."
Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) led the sprint once Van der Poel – who had been out in the break for 173km with teammate Jonas Rickaert – was caught. Upon launching the sprint, Milan found the space to race straight along the barriers, while Merlier and De Lie had to take the long way round, dodging the slower Van Poppel and Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech).
The extra metres were clearly no hindrance, however, and at the 100-metre mark, Merlier and Milan were side-by-side. At that point, the momentum – just – was with the Belgian, who edged ahead in the final metres to score his 62nd career victory.
Following stage 9, the main classifications at the Tour remain the same. Van der Poel drops one spot in the GC to sixth, while Milan has extended his green jersey lead with 227 points to the 156 of race leader Tadej Pogačar.
How it unfolded
The ninth stage of the Tour de France brought with it another day for the sprinters to round out the weekend. The flat 174.1km run from Chinon to Châteauroux featured no categorised climbs and only 1,000 metres of climbing, a day for a bunch sprint if ever there was one.
The day’s intermediate sprint came after just 24.2km of racing, setting up the green jersey contenders with an early battle before the 150km run to the finish line.
The sprinter’s plans were foiled at the drop of the flag to start the stage, however, when Alpecin-Deceuninck pair Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert leapt away from the front of the peloton.
The duo would form the breakaway of the day, racing up the road as Lidl-Trek took control of the peloton for green jersey holder and stage 8 winner Milan. They’d build a five-minute gap before the sprint, which saw Van der Poel scoop up 20 points to Rickaert’s 17 as Milan led Biniam Girmay and Merlier across for 15, 13, and 12 points, respectively.
The big news of the mid-stage was João Almeida’s battle to continue in the race. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider, a key lieutenant for Tadej Pogačar, broke a rib in a crash on stage 7 but fought on through Saturday’s stage. However, with 120km to go he was off the back of the peloton and must’ve clearly been in some pain as a result of his injury.
Almeida made it just past the halfway point of the day before having to climb off the bike and abandon the race, leaving UAE Team Emirates-XRG down a vital rider in the battle against Visma-Lease A Bike later in the Tour.
As was the case on stage 8, with not much beyond the intermediate sprint and the finish for any riders to fight over, there was no real action on the road to Châteauroux. At least on Sunday the average speed of the day touched 50 kph rather than languishing around the slowest predicted pace.
Gradually, the two-man break’s maximum advantage of five minutes was whittled down. The time gap had fallen to four minutes at the 70km mark, hit three with 55km to go, and went under two around 15km later.
Lidl-Trek continued their work on the front, keen to set up Milan for weekend clean sweep, and livening up the proceedings with a sharp burst on the front when crosswinds hit with 32km to run.
The move saw a split in the peloton, even if no major sprinters or GC names were caught out. Five kilometres later, following Visma-Lease a Bike’s driving on the front, the gap to the leaders had come down to a minute, while those dropped in the echelons lay a further minute back.
Van der Poel and Rickaert battled on out front towards the final kilometres of the day, retaining that minute advantage into the last 20km before that seconds ticked under just before the 10km mark.
Van der Poel went solo at 6km to go, leaving the spent Rickaert to drop back to the peloton, leaving his team leader 30 seconds up the road. Behind him, Lidl-Trek were joined by a wide range of teams in the chase as the peloton strained to drag the Dutchman back.
He sped on through the winding run-in to Châteauroux, but even Van der Poel’s power wasn’t enough to hold off a full charging peloton. That 30-second lead melted away, though not without a fight. He raced on under the flamme rouge before contact was made, a valiant effort cut 750 metres short of glory.
The late catch led to a messy sprint without the longer set-up teams enjoy on other sprint days. Soudal-QuickStep and Israel-Premier Tech were among the teams on the front late on, with Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) leading it out to the line.
Behind him, Milan and Merlier were lurking, ready to launch the sprint. They both took differing routes around other riders and towards the finish, and the pair battled side-by-side with the finish line in sight, but in the end it was Merlier who prevailed, pulling out that little bit of extra speed to take his team’s third win of the Tour.
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