Our rider kept his place on the overall podium after a remarkable ride.

Stage 9 was one of the most important of this edition, comprising fourteen dirt road sectors for a total of 32 kilometers of gravel that spiced up the race just before a well-deserved first rest day. Held in the Champagne wine region, and starting and finishing in Troyes – the city which made its first appearance at the race 85 years ago – the stage was full gas from the opening kilometer, when half a dozen teams tried to book a place in the breakaway.

The kind of day where you can’t win the Tour but you can definitely lose it, this 199km stage turned into pure chaos as soon as the peloton hit the first gravel sector. Soudal Quick-Step made sure Remco Evenepoel was in an ideal position every time, thanks to an incredible effort of Yves Lampaert and Gianni Moscon, the latter guiding his leader and keeping him at the front as the bunch split, leaving only 50-odd riders in the main group.

With each kilometer and each gravel road segment that passed, Evenepoel felt better and better, and with an incredible 77 kilometers to go, as the unsurfaced roads went up, he took off and put 15 seconds into the chasers. Joined by the yellow jersey and the defending champion, the 24-year-old Belgian kept pushing through the dust, helping the trio take their buffer to almost half a minute.

The move had potential, but the lack of collaboration ended any hope of it going all the way and allowed the chasing group to bridge across. Remco had the incredible Mikel Landa for company – the Basque producing a fantastic effort on this challenging stage – and remained prominent and in the thick of the action as more attempts to split the peloton came on the challenging white roads of this brutal day.

While at the front the escapees had their own battle, which ended up being won by Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies), the GC favourites continued to trade blows as the kilometers ticked down. Evenepoel remained calm and was present in all the moves, and eventually, the group accepted that there won’t be any changes on Sunday and came home together, around two minutes behind the breakaway.

“I felt good today, stayed the whole time out of trouble thanks to a very good team, and at one moment I decided to attack on one of the sectors, despite being some 80 kilometers from the finish. It’s a pity that some didn’t work in the group, as we could have gained a significant margin of minutes even over the others, but it was their tactic in the end, so we have to accept it, that’s cycling.”

“Personally, I did a good stage, had fun out there and proved that I can ride on the gravel. It’s a nice way to conclude what has been a strong and rewarding first week of the Tour de France for us. I am satisfied with how things stand, the shape and the confidence are there, so everything that comes from now on will be a bonus”, said white jersey Remco Evenepoel, who remained second overall after this stage.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Anthony Turgis
TotalEnergies
4:19:43
2 Thomas Pidcock
INEOS Grenadiers
0:00
3 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
0:00
4 Alex Aranburu Deba
Movistar Team
0:00
5 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
0:02
6 Alexey Lutsenko
Astana Qazaqstan Team
0:02
7 Javier Romo
Movistar Team
0:12
8 Jasper Stuyven
Lidl - Trek
0:18
9 Biniam Girmay Hailu
Intermarché - Wanty
1:17
10 Michael Matthews
Team Jayco AlUla
1:17
45 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
1:46
47 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
1:46
53 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
1:46
88 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
11:42
101 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
11:42
140 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
11:42
147 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
12:01
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
35:42:42
2 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:33
3 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
1:15
4 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
1:36
5 Juan Ayuso Pesquera
UAE Team Emirates
2:16
6 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
2:17
7 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
2:31
8 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
3:35
9 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
4:02
10 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
4:03
28 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
16:39
44 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
32:01
81 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
1:04:35
124 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
1:24:25
139 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
1:33:35
1 Biniam Girmay Hailu
Intermarché - Wanty
224 pt
2 Jasper Philipsen
Alpecin - Deceuninck
128 pt
3 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
107 pt
4 Anthony Turgis
TotalEnergies
96 pt
5 Arnaud De Lie
Lotto Dstny
92 pt
6 Bryan Coquard
Cofidis
86 pt
7 Arnaud Démare
73 pt
8 Fernando Gaviria Rendon
Movistar Team
73 pt
9 Dylan Groenewegen
Team Jayco AlUla
71 pt
10 Kévin Vauquelin
70 pt
12 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
60 pt
62 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
9 pt
67 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
8 pt
69 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
7 pt
1 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
33 pt
2 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
20 pt
3 Valentin Madouas
Groupama - FDJ
16 pt
4 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
15 pt
5 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
12 pt
6 Stephen Williams
Israel - Premier Tech
10 pt
7 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
10 pt
8 Frank van den Broek
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
9 pt
9 Ion Izagirre Insausti
Cofidis
8 pt
10 Juan Ayuso Pesquera
UAE Team Emirates
8 pt
13 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
4 pt
1 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
35:43:15
2 Juan Ayuso Pesquera
UAE Team Emirates
1:43
3 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
1:58
4 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
3:30
5 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
5:20
6 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
6:42
7 Javier Romo
Movistar Team
11:06
8 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
16:06
9 Thomas Pidcock
INEOS Grenadiers
16:08
10 Maxim Van Gils
Lotto Dstny
20:54
1 UAE Team Emirates 107:13:01
2 Soudal Quick-Step 6:04
3 INEOS Grenadiers 6:45
4 Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 7:41
5 Movistar Team 12:41
6 Bahrain - Victorious 14:33
7 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 18:34
8 EF Education - EasyPost 23:40
9 Lidl - Trek 33:04
10 Uno-X Mobility 50:05

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