Impey wins his first stage as Alaphilippe celebrates in Yellow on Bastille Day

Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) took an impressive victory in stage 9 of the Tour de France, after the South African rider out-sprinted breakaway companion Tiesj Benoot (Lotto-Soudal) to claim his first-ever Tour de France stage win

Frenchman Alaphilippe kept hold of the overall lead while Thibaut Pinot, defending champion Geraint Thomas and the big guns all finished together around 16 minutes behind a mass breakaway.

15 riders established the day's breakaway early on, on the 170.5 kilometer stage from Saint-Étienne to Brioude, building up a massive alead of  over 14 minutes in front of the uninterested main peloton.

Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) put in an attack on the final climb, but was caught by Teisj Benoot and Nicolas Roche (Sunweb).

Austrian Pöstlberger was dropped leaving Teisj Benoot and Nicolas Roche to push on with Daryl Impey bridging across.

Roche, was later dropped, leaving Impey and Benoot to battle it out to the finish.

Impey surged ahead of his Belgian rival in the final meters to take the stage, while Jan Tratnik (Bahrain Merida) finished a few seconds later to round-out the podium.

Meanwhile, Romain Bardet, whose hometown is Brioude, put in a attack and Richie Porte followed, hovwever George Bennett bridges across which killed the move as Team Ineos quickly shut it down.

Deceuninck-Quick-Step’s Julian Alaphilippe crossed the finish line safely in the peloton to keep the yellow jersey for another day and much to the delight of France, who celebrated a Frenchman in the yellow jersey on Bastille day.

Stage winner Daryl Impey (Mitchelton Scott) said to the media "It's pretty much for me, from the Tour de France perspective, it's something that I was really missing. It's the seventh time I'm riding the Tour de France and have been in a number of breakaways, to finally nail it today - it's a dream come true. I really don't have any words," Impey said at the finish."

"It was a stage I'd kind of marked for a breakaway. Yesterday, also obviously, but unfortunately the break went away straightaway. Today we were pretty active - Luke and them were active in the start. I just kind of found the lucky move. I didn't have to do too much to get in there. We all worked really well together. I just believed in myself. Played it quite smart there in the end, I think. I knew I had to get to Tiesj and them on the final climb.

"I've been imagining that emotion on the finish line for a long time, so it's fantastic to win at this level. The last Tour de France stage victory for South Africa I think was Robbie Hunter in 2007. It's been a long time between drinks - to win on Bastille Day, that's fantastic. That's a magic memory."

VIDEO: 2019 Tour de France Stage 9 Highlights from GCN

2019 Tour de France Stage 9 Top 10

1 Daryl Impey (RSA) Mitchelton-Scott 4:03:12
2 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal
3 Jan Tratnik (Slo) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:10
4 Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale
5 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
6 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sunweb 0:00:14
7 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:21
8 Ivan Garcia (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:50
9 Simon Clarke (Aus) EF Education First
10 Anthony Delaplace (Fra) Arkéa Samsic 0:02:42

2019 Tour de France GC after Stage 9

1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 38:37:36
2 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:23
3 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:53
4 George Bennett (NZl) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:01:10
5 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos 0:01:12
6 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos 0:01:16
7 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:01:27
8 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First 0:01:38
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:01:42
10 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:45