Van der Poel wins shortened 2026 Tour de France stage 9 in 40C heat

The stage from Malemort to Ussel was cut by around 30 kilometres following a red-alert heat warning from French authorities, but even the revised distance produced a punishing, attritional race that took hours to settle.

 

It took until halfway through the stage for an eight-man break to finally establish itself, only edging clear on the steep 3.8-kilometre Suc au May climb. The move never gained more than ninety seconds, and the heat ensured constant reshuffling until only four riders remained in contention: van der Poel, Tobias Johannessen, Tom Pidcock and Alex Baudin. Pidcock, chasing a second Tour stage win, looked sharp but was hampered by a late mechanical that forced him to chase back just as the final accelerations began.

 

Van der Poel timed his sprint perfectly, powering clear in the final metres to beat Johannessen and Pidcock, adding another Tour stage to victories from 2021 and 2025 and further cementing his reputation as one of the sport’s great one-day racers. He admitted afterwards that the heat made it “super-hard” and that he had struggled to recover earlier in the week, but said he finally felt the legs to go for the win.

 

Behind the break, Tadej Pogacar finished six seconds down in the peloton, comfortably retaining the yellow jersey heading into Monday’s rest day. It marked the second time this year’s Tour has been disrupted by extreme conditions, following the spectator restrictions on stage three due to wildfires near the Spanish-French border.

VIDEO: 2026 Tour de France Stage 9 Highlights