Key events
49km to go The gap has stabilised at around a minute as we roll towards the final categorised climb on Mont Bessou in about 25km.
56km to go Pidcock takes the mountains points. If he wants to win the break has to work together to pull away again.
57km to go UAE are really pushing with the peloton on the Côte de la Croix du Pey, a category three climb that hits 6%, they’re keeping their options open because it’s very unlikely they put much time into the other GC contenders. Is this about punishment?
59km to go UAE are shrinking the gap to the breakaway, it’s now less than a minute, but why? Is Pogacar planning an assault? It’s aggressive but his team’s pace is also bringing Pedersen back into it.
Correspondence! “I have no idea who will win this,” writes Gavin Dunn, “but a propos of not much, Ussel (county town of Correze, apparently) features in The Day of the Jackal (the book). The Jackal stops there in his resprayed Alfa Romeo to eat toast and eggs in a late night cafe, on the way to his lover’s chateaux where he planned to lie low. The cafe was in the Place de la Gare. You don’t get that on TNT.”
Lovely stuff. As ever, send me your thoughts via the link at the top of the page.
69km to go Mads Pedersen appears to have latched back on to the peloton, with two Lidl-Trek colleagues up the road he might not be as out of it as I previously assumed.
74km to go Alex Baudin (EF-Education-EasyPost), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) and Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarche) are the riders I’m yet to namecheck in the breakaway. Van der Poel has just done a big turn on the front to grow the gap to 1min 25secs. They’ll need more than that.
81km to go Johannessen and Simmons are set to be joined by Pidcock, Gee, Van der Poel, plus a few others. The winner comes out of this group now, I think.
82km to go Mads Pedersen is out of the back of the peloton.
83km to go Just as I ask myself, what is going on with Pidcock and co? The camera cuts to him leading a trio going after Simmons and Johannessen.
88km to go Simmons and Johannessen have made a move to leave behind that larger breakaway group and pulled out 20 seconds. I’m not sure that’s great racing from the break, why work so hard to establish a platform and then let two up the effort to go off? It says to me they had more to give.
90km to go Pidcock has made it and the number in the break is now up to 16 riders. They should be able to get away now, if UAE let them, of course.
91km to go Pidcock is trying to go across now. The peloton is letting him have at it.
94km to go Dare I write that 13 riders have 20 seconds? UAE are pulling on the front of the main bunch but there is some talent in this mini-break, inlcuding Quinn Simmons, Derek Gee and Mathieu van der Poel.
98km to go Pity a live blogger, just as you look up and see a break attempt going off, identify the riders and then the peloton is back together again. This is intense stuff for the riders. They have been racing almost flat out for 60km to go.
101km to go Pidcock chases down a group being led away by Filippo Ganna. The front of the race is down to 100 riders now. A bit of natural selection as we head toward the category two Suc au May.
107km to go Matteo Jorgensond and Kevin Vauquelin dart off as we’ve paced under the mountains points banner. They’re not allowed to go.
109km to go Tom Pidcock has arrived at the front and is trying to break this up with an intense uphill effort. There are cracks but still nothing definitive. Are the GC teams controlling this a bit too much? No one is blinking.
110km to go The riders hit the category three Côte de Naves and the escapists are being reeled back in.
113km to go Haller may not be in it for the long haul but if he can give Alaphilippe enough of a gap then he can fall back into the peleton with his work done. The break quintet has 25 seconds.
115km to go Xabier Azparren (Pinarello), Dorion Godon (Netcompany-Ineos and Michel Hessmann (Movistar) have joined the Tudor pair now. They have 12 seconds, enough?
119km to go The peloton is heading downhill and the riders are pretty strung out. Alaphilippe is pushing on this descent and has Tudor teammate Marco Haller with him.
125km to go Poor Jonathan Harris-Bass is having a bad day on TNT comms duty. This change in stage route has thrown off his usual insights into the French scenery and he has nothing to offer for the second chateaux in a row. A producer really needs to help him out here.
130km to go Kirsh, Anders Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-Alula), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) were in there too but that’s not stuck.
132km to go We’ve had more than 20km of racing but still no settled breakaway group but now we have Julian Alaphilippe in a group of five that might have a chance.
138km to go Merlier is in a group of strugglers out the back of the race now and they’re already a minute down. No breakaway has formed yet, but we’re seeing repeated efforts to make one stick.
Pedersen wins the intermediate sprint
That was a masterclass from Lidl-Trek. Pedersen barely seemed to up the pedal strokes as he moved off the front, Biniam Girmay got stuck and was well back in second for 20 points, with Jasper Philipsen finishing third to nab 16. Tim Merlier was back getting a bidon, so all of his rivals have gained some points back.
143km to go This intermediate sprint is on a bit of an uphill and you can see the effort levels increasing as we wind up. Lidl-Trek still pounding away on the front as they seek to give Mads Pedersen a platform to hoover up the 25 points on offer here.
147km to go There’s a very early intermediate sprint for the points chasers. We’ll be hitting that in little more than 6km. It seems we won’t be getting a proper breakaway until after that.
148km to go Lidl-Trek are doing the work on the front of the main bunch to bring this back.
150km to go We’ve had a few breakaway chancers speed off the front. Quinten Hermans (Pinarello-Q36.5), Alex Kirsch (Cofidis) and Stefano Oldani (Caja Rural) have about 25 seconds. Ewen Costiou (Groupama-FDJ United) and Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) are in pursuit.
We are off!
Christian Prudhomme pokes his head out of the sunroof and waves his little yellow flag. Stage nine is underway…
Countdown to kilometre zero
The riders are rolling out of Malemort, racing begins in earnest in 5km.
We have correspondence! Tim Buckley breaks the reader predictions duck: “Tom Pidcock and Ben Healey from the break. No threat on GC and handy at Ardennes style climbs.” Do we dare to dream of an England World Cup win and a British stage winner on the Tour in the same weekend? Keep ‘em coming.
Who do you think is taking today’s stage? My inbox is open to predictions via the link at the top of the page.
King of the mountains standings
Polka dot tabulations:
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 28
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) 19
3. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) 16
4. Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) 13
5. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) 12
6. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) 10
7. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 10
8. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) 10
9. Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) 9
10. Raúl García (Movistar Team) 7
Points standings
This is probably the real quiz today:
1. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 228
2. Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) 213
3. Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team) 203
4. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) 175
5. Max Kanter (XDS Astana Team) 172
6. Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) 110
7. Søren Waerenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) 89
8. Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) 79
9. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 75
10. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) 61
General classification standings
Here is the top ten, ahead of stage nine:
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 28hrs 49mins 07secs
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike): +2mins 42secs
3. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): +3mins 27secs
4. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe): +3mins 30secs
5. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek): +3mins 34secs
6. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team): +3mins 55secs
7. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe): +4mins 00secs
8. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious): +4mins 21secs
9. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek): +4mins 57secs
10. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek): +7mins 10secs
More on the decision to shorten the ninth stage from Jeremy Whittle in Bergerac:
Undoubtedly the graphics team at ASO were a little gutted to have to fire up the file named ‘stage_9_route_V4_final’ and have to chop out 30km but here we are. This is what the riders will be working with today:
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Preamble
When Tadej Pogacar has an unassailable lead it is days like today that mean that the Tour de France never remains less than compelling.
Shortened by 30km because of the red heatwave alert in Corrèze département of central France, this lumpy 155.5km run from Malemort to Ussel comes on the eve of the first rest day, offering interest to the peloton’s lurkers, breakaway specialists and the bold.
The Suc au May is steep enough to entice a climber to have a dart but we are probably looking at a Mads Pedersen-type winner, if the Lidl-Trek rider does not fancy it himself. Maybe without the pains of saddle sores, Tom Pidcock would be a contender to add to his sole stage win at the Tour. Quinn Simmons and Mathias Vacek will also be eyeing this one up for sure.
