Mathieu van der Poel powered to a third career Tour de France victory on stage nine, a shortened sprint finish under temperatures nearing 40°C. The Dutch rider outpaced Denmark's Tobias Johannessen and Britain's Tom Pidcock, who was hindered by a mechanical failure.
Pidcock's hopes for a second Tour stage win were dashed when his chain cassette or derailleur malfunctioned about 25 kilometers from the finish. Despite staying with the breakaway, he couldn't match van der Poel's explosive sprint. "My shifter stopped working ... Mathieu is a difficult one to beat," Pidcock said.
The stage was cut by roughly 30 kilometers due to a red alert from French authorities for extreme heat. General classification leader Tadej Pogacar crossed six seconds behind in the peloton, retaining the yellow jersey heading into Monday's rest day.
Van der Poel described it as a "super-hard day" but noted the heat felt better than earlier stages. "The past few days I've felt a bit better and today I finally had some legs to go for it," he said.
The extreme conditions sparked debate about rider safety. The CPA cyclists' association called for start times to evolve to protect health, with some riders suggesting earlier starts. Australian rider Luke Durbridge called it "pretty insanely hot," echoing calls for change. Pogacar pushed for more drastic calendar adjustments, saying, "If I could have the power to change it all, I would change all the calendar."
This is the second Tour stage affected by weather, after stage three saw fans banned near the Spanish-French border due to wildfires.