Alpecin-Premier Tech rider Mathieu van der Poel won the ninth stage of the 2026 Tour de France after being the fastest at the finish in Ussel, after covering the 154.6-kilometer route from Malemort.
The victory marked Van der Poel's third stage win in the Tour de France and extended Alpecin-Premier Tech's record of winning every stage in every edition of the race since its debut in 2021.
"The first few days of the Tour haven't gone well for our team. But we remained calm as usual. We have a very solid team and we're confident things will turn around. It's great to go into the first rest day with a win," said Van der Poel, as quoted on the official Tour de France website on Monday.
The final stage before the first rest day took place in the Corrèze region, with a hilly course adapted to the weather conditions. Riders faced four categorized climbs with a total elevation gain of approximately 3,000 meters.
The race was aggressive from the start. Lidl-Trek controlled various breakaway attempts until the intermediate sprint at Beynat, led by Mads Pedersen ahead of Biniam Girmay.
A breakaway finally formed after Van der Poel launched an attack at kilometer 57. Sixteen riders were in the lead group, including Tobias Johannessen, Tom Pidcock, and Clément Braz Afonso.
