CHATEAUROUX, France — Belgian sprinter Tim Merlier won the ninth stage of the Tour de France in a mass sprint after Mathieu van der Poel was caught by the chasing pack less than a kilometer from the finish following a long breakaway.
There was no significant change in the overall standings and three-time Tour champion Tadej Pogačar kept the race leader’s yellow jersey.
Sunday’s stage headed into central France on a 158-kilometer (98-mile) flat stretch for sprinters.
But Mathieu van der Poel, a one-day classics specialist with a flamboyant style of riding, almost foiled their plans. The Dutch rider produced a tremendous effort during a 173-kilometer breakaway at a speed of about 30 mph (50 km/h) but could not go all the way and was swallowed less than a kilometer from the line.
Merlier won the sprint ahead of Jonathan Milan, the winner of Saturday’s stage, with Arnaud De Lie completing the podium.
In the overall standings, double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel remained 54 seconds behind Pogačar in second place. Frenchman Kévin Vauquelin was third at 1 minutes, 11 seconds, and two-time Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard sat 1:17 behind in fourth spot.
Ealier in the stage, João Almeida, a key teammate of Pogačar, abandoned the race. Almeida, who fractured a rib during Stage 7, was dropped early and the UAE Team Emirates-XRG later announced over the race radio that the Portuguese rider had retired.
Almeida was caught in a high-speed crash earlier this week as riders scrambled for position at the front, 6 kilometers (4 miles) from the finish line. Almeida escaped without a concussion but his rib fracture finally proved to be too painful to carry on in the three-week race.
Almeida finished fourth at the 2024 Tour de France and started this year’s edition on the back of strong results elsewhere, having won the Tour de Suisse, Tour de Romandie and Itzulia Basque Country.
