Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) wins Stage 9 of the 2025 Tour de France, sprinting from the bunch after stage led predominately by Jonas Rickaert and Mathieu Van der Poel. Van der Poel stayed off the front for 173 kilometers with an average speed of 49.9 km/h!
After Jonathan Milan’s success in Laval, a flat course (174.1km, 1,400m of elevation) takes the peloton form Chinon to Châteauroux, aka “Cavendish City”. While winds were expected to be calm at the start, they were expected to pick up over the course of the day, reaching gusts of 45 km/h in the second half of the stage. Blowing from the southwest, it will always be favourable for the peloton… except in several segments where it will blow from the side, opening up the possibility of echelons.
The peloton, now down to 176 men, rolled out at 1:25 PM.
Jonas Rickaert attacks from the gun and is immediately joined at the front by Mathieu Van der Poel.
Their gap quickly opened to 1’30”, putting Van Der Poel into the virtual maillot jaune.
19km in and the gap had opened to 2’55”. Rickaert and Van Der Poel were 10km from the first intermediate sprint.
At the sprint, it was VDP crossing first and collecting 20 points. By the time yesterday’s winner Jonathan Milan crosses with the peloton, the break duo led by 4’10”.
In the peloton, there was a crash. Sprinters like Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers), Soren Waerenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) and Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL) were among those involved.
After the first 50km, Mathieu Van der Poel and his teammate Jonas Rickaert averaged 46.8 km/h, against 42.6 km/h for the peloton. The gap had ballooned to more than 5’30”! Uno-X Mobility and Lidl-Trek are collaborating at the front of the gruppo.
Lidl-Trek and Soudal Quick-Step upped the ante with 75 km to go, with Jonathan Milan taking turns himself.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) is caught behind, but he was giving his all to return!
Jonas Rickaert is a loyal Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate for Van der Poel. He joined the squad in 2019 and has been an important part of the team’s sprint train since. The is his fourth Tour (OTL in 2024, after completing the race in 2021 and 2023). His importance is illustrated with his long term contract signed in May, all the way to 2028.
As the race enters the last 60 kilometres, Switzerland’s national champion Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) pulls the bunch with Israel Premier Tech riders on his wheel. The latest gap was 3’30”.
The pace in the pelot0n increased with 37km to go. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Total Energies were driving hard, putting some 30 riders are off the back, including Buitrago, Abrahamsen, O’Connor, Tejada, Adam and Simon Yates, Schachmann, Sivakov.
Visma-Lease a Bike move to the front of the bunch with Pogacar, Milan and Evenepoel right behind them.
The bunch was stretched in a single line.
The advantage of the lead duo dropped below a minute before settling back to 1’15”.
10km to go and Van der Poel and Rickaert hold just under a minute gap. Stuyven and Consonni, who are supposed to be part of Milan’s leadout train, pull the bunch.
The gap was falling fast, down to 30 seconds with 7km to go.
Rickaert pops and falls off, but Van der Poel continues alone. With 5km to go, he’s holding onto that 30 second gap.
Will VDP hold on? His speed was dramatically slower than the chasing peloton with 3km to go.
2km to go and he can look over his shoulder and see the bunch, but he bravely soldiers on.
With a scant 700m to go, there’s the catch. It was all about the sprint teams now!
And the win goes to Tim Merlier!
“I’m happy I could win here today and repay the team for all their hard work. It was nervous out there the entire day because of the wind, but in the end the peloton stayed together. The heat also made things really tough, so it wasn’t at all an easy stage despite the profile. We chased hard behind the escapees, but we pulled together with other teams and managed to bring them back.”
“Coming into Châteauroux, I lost Bert for a moment but then found him with two kilometers to go and was relaxed again at that point and really confident, which allowed me to do a perfect sprint. I remember Cav’s victory here from four years ago and I’m happy I could bring another win for Soudal Quick-Step in this beautiful city. Two victories from two bunch sprints in which I was present make for a great Tour de France for myself, but also for the squad”, said Merlier after helping Soudal Quick-Step become the first team to score three wins at this edition.
Stage 9 Brief Results:
- Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step)
- Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)
- Arnaud De Lie (Lotto)
- Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL)
- Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ)
General Classification After Stage 9:
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) @ 29h 48′ 30”
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), +54”
- Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), +1’11”
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), +1’17”
- Matteo Jorgensen (Visma-Lease a Bike), +1’34”
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